Earth Day Online: Superintendent Cassius Cash, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
04/21/2021, 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
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Description:
Superintendent Cash and Spokesperson Dana Soehn will share updates from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, including discussion of the challenges and successes of managing a park through the pandemic and the importance of public lands over the past year as a refuge for all. They will discuss the impacts increased visitation and what this means for those working to protect parks. Finally, they will share the importance of park stewardship and how users, supporters, and advocates can ensure long-term care of public lands.
Cassius Cash is currently serving as the 16th superintendent of Great Smoky Mountains National Park encompassing the eponymous mountain range in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. He is the former superintendent of Boston National Historical Park and Boston African American National Historic Site and in 2015 became the first African American superintendent of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in the United States welcoming 12.5 million visitors in 2019.
Cash was born in Memphis, the son of a cosmetologist and an officer with the Memphis Police Department. Cash attributes some of his earliest interest in the natural world to watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom on T.V., an interest which was further solidified through participating in outdoor excursions with Memphis Boy Scouts Troop 511. Learn more about Superintendent Cash at this link.
Dana Soehn is a Management Assistant and Park Spokesperson at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Originally from Missouri, Dana started working for the National Park Service 32 years ago at Great Smoky Mountains National Park as a college intern. She received her Bachelor of Science in Wildlife & Fisheries Biology at the University of Tennessee and Master of Science in Wildlife & Fisheries Science at West Virginia University while continuing to work seasonally in the Smokies. She has worked permanently at the park since 1996 in Resource Management & Science, Resource Education, Volunteer Outreach, and now as the Park Spokesperson and Management Assistant. She serves in the Superintendent’s Office as the Park Spokesperson coordinating public communications, media outreach, partnerships, community engagement; leading special parkwide projects like the current effort to assess Visitor Use and Congestion.
