As MountainTrue’s French Broad Riverkeeper, Anna Alsobrook facilitates water quality monitoring, citizen science, and improvement programs in the French Broad River watershed. Prior to moving to WNC and working for MountainTrue in 2014, she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Senegal and attained her undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of TN, Knoxville. Her love and interest in water began by running the trails along the Wolf River in Memphis, TN, where she grew up. What started out as a love through recreation, her studies and times abroad routinely reinforced her passion for the complexities of water issues. Intimately aware of the impacts of water scarcity as well as water quality on community health, she decided to focus her graduate degree and career on water issues. Since coming to WNC, Anna has taken up kayaking and paddle boarding. She loves taking her dog, Poppy, down the river on her paddle board. She still runs trails and makes a point to run the ones along the Wolf River when she goes back to Memphis. On any given weekend, she can be found hiking, biking, or paddling in and around WNC.

Andy Brown is the Executive Director of the Appalachian Resource Conservation and Development Council in Tennessee, whose work to support farmers and natural resources currently includes post-Helene river restoration. Previously, he has served as the Executive Director of the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust in Colorado, Southern Appalachian Coldwater Conservation Manager for Trout Unlimited, and the founder and director of Equinox, a conservation planning and landscape architectural firm in Asheville. He holds a master of public administration degree with a concentration in environmental policy and planning and a bachelors in cultural anthropology.

Kevin Colburn is the National Stewardship Director of American Whitewater where he has worked for 24 years. His work has focused on river protection, public river access, and mitigating the impacts of hydropower dams, including many projects in Western North Carolina. Kevin has an undergraduate degree from UNC-Asheville, and a masters degree from the University of Montana, both focused on restoration ecology. He lives in Asheville with his family and has been exploring rivers by boat for over three decades.

Jessi Linkous is the District Conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Greene and Cocke Counties. She has worked with the agency 13 years and has been in her current position for 7 years. In her work, she has assisted several hundred agriculture producers address resource concerns by implementing conservation practices on their properties. Jessi has an undergraduate degree from the University if Tennessee, Knoxville in Environmental and Soil Science with a Minor in Watershed Management.