The Staff
Betty Waldroop
Betty Waldroop was born and raised in Macon County in the Cartoogechaye community
Education
- AA degree from Southwestern Community College in Paralegal Technology
- BSED from Western Carolina University in Business Education
- MAED from Western Carolina University in Business Education
- Add on to Masters in Curriculum and Instruction and in School Administration
Work Experience
1980-1991 Teacher at Franklin High School
1991-1996 Vocational Director Macon County Schools
1996-2009 Finance Officer Macon County Schools
(2001-2008 also served as personnel administrator)
Retired from school system in June of 2009
Family includes sons Barry Browning and wife Cindy, Brian Browning and wife Lisa, and three grand children - Wyatt, Branch, and Keira.
- I am proud to be associated with an organization whose goal is to conserve the water, forests, farms and heritage of Western North Carolina. This is a precious gift we can give to our children and grandchildren as we teach them to respect the beauty and history of this area.
Jill Wiggins
Membership and Outreach Associate
Jill Wiggins was born and raised in Fort Myers, Florida. She relocated to Franklin with her family in 2005 and attended Southwestern Community College for two years, were she received her Associates of Arts and Science. She transfered to Western Carolina University in the 2008, where she graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Science focusing on environmental conservation.
Before working for LTLT, she worked for the Little Tennessee Watershed Association from 2007-2010. Jill started working with the Land Trust in the 2009 and 2010 summer season. She is now working full time as the Membership and Outreach Associate. Her favorite season is winter, and enjoys traveling and floating down the Little Tennessee River at Needmore.
Sunny Himes
Stewardship Associate
Sunny Himes is a native of North Carolina and has lived in the mountains of WNC for the better part of 18 years. She received her B.A. in biology from UNC-Asheville in 1996 and a M.S. degree in biology from Western Carolina University in 2002. After graduating from WCU, Sunny worked for the Nature Conservancy in Nebraska and North Dakota for a year as a prairie restoration technician and a prescribed fire crew member. She returned to western North Carolina in 2003 and began teaching environmental science at WCU in the biology department. For 6 summers she worked as a vegetation technician and manager for the Balsam Mountain Trust and her duties included rare plant rescue, exotic invasive plant control, native plant propagation, coordination of native plant sales, and botanical research. Today, in addition to her part-time position with the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee, Sunny continues to teach and manage laboratories at WCU. She enjoys “botanizing,” gardening, hiking, camping, and restoring her little cabin.
Contact
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828-507-1188
Paul J. Carlson
Executive Director
Paul is a NC Registered Forester who holds an MS in Forestry from the University of Illinois – Urbana and a B.A in economics. He spent a dozen years in the Andean region of South America, first as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia, and subsequently as the highlands forestry advisor for the US Agency for International Development in Peru and as agroforestry advisor for USAID in Ecuador. From 1991-1997 he worked as a consulting forester in western North Carolina and since 1997 has been with the Land Trust.
Contact
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828-524-2711 x204
Philip Moore
Hiwassee Project Director
A sixth-generation native of Clay County, Philip grew up in the Tusquitee community and graduated from Hayesville High School. In 2001, he graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in engineering. He worked fulltime on the family farm for a year, helping raise beef cattle, hay, and burley tobacco, then spent four years with the NC Department of Transportation administering contracts for road maintenance.
Sharon Fouts Taylor
Land Protection Director and Deputy Director
Sharon grew up in Macon County, North Carolina, on her family's farm in the Burningtown community. She graduated from Franklin High School and later from Western Carolina University with a B.S. in Natural Resource Management, with concentration in Water Resources.
Before joining the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee in 2001, Sharon was employed by the University of Georgia as Research Technician on the Long Term Ecological Research Project at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in Otto, NC. Her duties included collecting forest ecosystem data, personal research, and public outreach through civic organizations and education. From 1996 until 2005, she served on the board of the Little Tennessee Watershed Association, a grassroots conservation organization dedicated to improving water quality and habitat in the Little Tennessee River watershed. She served as founding Co-Chair of the Folk Heritage Association of Macon County, a non-profit organization whose mission is to "provide living history experiences and to preserve the folk heritage of Macon County for generations to come."
Contact
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828-524-2711 x202
Dennis Desmond
Land Stewardship Director
Dennis started with LTLT in May 2002 as Forestry Program Coordinator. Since fall 2004, he has served as Land Stewardship Director, which involves oversight of management and restoration activities on LTLT’s properties, baseline documentation and annual monitoring visits on LTLT’s conservation easements, and stewardship-related outreach and volunteer activities.
Ramelle Smith
Administration and Finance Director
Ramelle Smith was born in England and raised in Ohio and South Carolina. In 1976, after a camping trip to Wesser, NC she moved to Swain County to enjoy the mountains of WNC. Over the last 32 years she has worked for Nantahala Outdoor Center, Nantahala Village and Watershed Cabins primarily in accounting, human resource and office management.
P. O. Box 1148 - 88 East Main Street, Franklin, Nc 28744-1148 - Phone: 828-524-2711 - Fax: 828-524-4741