Community Resilience Forum

In late September 2024, our community and region experienced the most extreme weather disaster of our lifetimes. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, members of our community have worked together in extraordinary ways, helping each other to get through challenges and begin to recover from storm damage. 

We all caught glimpses of the care, connection and strength that are at the heart of our community’s resilience. Join us at this forum to get a fuller picture of this, and to learn from some of the people whose leadership has made, and continues to make, an enormous difference in the post-climate disaster well-being of our community.

Our panel of speakers (bios below) includes community leaders representing different areas of well-being. Each will share about disaster response and resilience from their perspective and we will follow that with panel discussion and Q&A from the audience. Speakers include:

• FOOD: Liz Whiteman, Executive Director, Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture
• WATER: Andy Hill, High Country Regional Director and Watauga Riverkeeper, Mountain True
• HOUSING: Kellie Reed Ashcraft, Executive Director, Watauga Housing Council
• ECONOMY: David Jackson, President/CEO, Boone Area Chamber of Commerce

Short film: We’re also pleased to screen Dr. Beth Davison’s new short film “We Begin Again at 9:30”, which shows the Todd community’s response to Hurricane Helene, including the work of RiverGirl owners Kelly McCoy and Renata Dos Santos who will join us for the panel discussion. Dr. Davison is a professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Appalachian State and the co-director of AppDocs.

* Perspectives from the Audience: Before and after the main session, we invite participants to share their post-Helene stories, including their perspectives on our community’s resilience and who they saw as community heroes in the aftermath of Helene (there are SO many). We’ll capture photos, audio and video in these nearby rooms: PSU 415 Rough Ridge and PSU 417 Beacon Heights.

Questions: Contact Laura England (englandle@appstate.edu).

SPEAKERS

LIZ WHITEMAN
Executive Director, Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture

Liz Whiteman grew up in northern Minnesota, spending summers helping her parents dig potatoes and carrots in their backyard gardens. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Liz followed her passion for regenerative agriculture and food sovereignty to urban gardens in New Orleans and tropical farms in rural Ecuador. She spent 5 years in Washington DC working on federal farm policy, focusing on increased funding for sustainable agriculture and strengthening nutrition programs such as WIC and SNAP. In 2019, Liz found her way to Western North Carolina, spending a season working for Tumbling Shoals Farm in Wilkes County. Drawn to the High Country by the impressive local food economy, Liz is excited to work with local farmers and community members to continue striving for a vibrant, equitable, and sustainable food system. Liz works to direct BRWIA’s programming and staff with a focus on strategic expansion and reach and the impact of BRWIA’s programming.

ANDY HILL
High Country Regional Director and Watauga Riverkeeper, Mountain True

Andy Hill has a passion for clean, cold, fishable, drinkable, and swimmable water. As a long-time fly fisherman, educator, and guide, he is intimately familiar with our watershed from the headwaters to the tailwater and is passionate about protecting the places we love. Andy’s love for the Southern Appalachians brought him to Appalachian State University, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Outdoor Experiential Education and his Master’s in College Outdoor Program Administration. Following his passion for outdoor recreation, Andy has led community service trips both locally and around the globe for several adventure travel programs. Also a NOLS graduate, he thrives on using the outdoors as a source of learning and connecting people with our shared wild places. Andy is active in the community as the founder of Fish Goat Guide Service based in Valle Crucis, and the proud founder of the Fly Fishing Program at Lees-McRae College. He is also an adjunct instructor at Appalachian State University, teaching courses in Natural Resource Management, Paddlesports, and Leadership and Group Dynamics, and serves on the board of the High Country Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Andy lives on a tributary of the Watauga with his wife, Bettie, and their young children. They can often be found splashing around our watershed.

KELLIE REED ASHCRAFT, Ph.D., MSW
Executive Director, Watauga Housing Council

Dr. Kellie Reed Ashcraft leads Watauga Housing Council (WHC), a newly-formed nonprofit agency that grew out of the 2022 community-wide Watauga Housing Forum (WHF).  The mission of the WHC is to “increase the supply of housing for Watauga’s cost-burdened residents, through partnerships and systemic change,” and overnight with Helene, the WHC’s mission grew exponentially.  Dr. Reed Ashcraft was recognized in 2022 by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce with the Kathy Crutchfield Citizen of the Year Award for her organizing and facilitating the Watauga Housing Forum.  Prior to her work as the WHC’s founding director and WHF organizer, Dr. Reed Ashcraft was a professor in the Department of Social Work for 23 years.  Her areas of expertise include community practice, human services leadership, policy and program evaluation, inter-disciplinary education, and adverse childhood experiences and resilience.  Dr. Reed Ashcraft, has been active with a number of organizations, having initiated the Resilient NC Collaborative Coalition, and having volunteered with the Watauga Compassionate Community Initiative, OASIS, Western Youth Network, the Town of Boone Nonprofit Grants Committee. She also has collaborated and continues to collaborate on various university and community grants and contracts.

DAVID JACKSON
President/CEO, Boone Area Chamber of Commerce

As President/CEO or Boone Area Chamber of Commerce, David has worked to grow several successful new programs and initiatives, including Keep Boone Healthy and Vision Northwest North Carolina. In 2021, Jackson was honored as a NC Main Street Champion by the NC Main Street & Rural Planning Center. He was also named the recipient of the inaugural Keep Boone Healthy Award for Community Leadership in 2020. Jackson has lived in the Boone area since 1996 and has been active with several community organizations. He serves on the Board of Directors of AppalCart, Town of Boone Cultural Resources Department, and Watauga Opportunities, Inc. He is a member of the Watauga County Economic Development Commission and serves on the Rural Transportation Coordinating Committee for the High Country Council of Governments. A 2000 graduate of Appalachian State, Jackson came to the chamber after 15 years as a member of the Appalachian State Athletic Department staff, serving the last 10 years as Associate Athletic Director.

KELLY MCCOY & RENATA DOS SANTOS
Owners, RiverGirl Fishing Company

Rivergirl Fishing Co. was started in July 2006 for fly fishing and eco-education. Over the years, it expanded from fly fishing to two kayaks to serving over 2400 people with kayaking, tubing, cycling and ecotourism each year via word of mouth. Primarily because the number one focus of the company has always been relationships. Relationships with the staff, customers, community and nature. Kelly McCoy and wife Renata Dos Santos consider themselves stewards of the South Fork of the New River and the community that surrounds it.