If every community had an Appalshop, we would all be much better at exchanging handshakes and recipes. They are a beacon of decency and forward-thinking in our country’s continued quest for equal human rights. Nick Offerman
Hannah Adams joined Appalshop in 2021 as the Lead Educator of Appalshop’s Appalachian Media Institute (AMI). Hannah first began working with AMI in 2017 as a youth media intern and has been an active participant ever since. Her work with AMI inspired her to seek higher education at Morehead State University, where she received a Bachelor’s of Arts in Convergent Media. Hannah's work has been published by NPR, YR Media, and 100 Days in Appalachia, among others. A Letcher County native, Hannah is grateful to continue her work with AMI helping Appalachian youth find a passion for media production.
Hannah Adams Asbury
AMI Educator
Appalachian Media Institute
Tommy Anderson (they/she) was raised in the sunshine and the shadows of the Pine Mountain ridge in Shelby Gap, Ky. As a musical and charismatic youth facing unique challenges, Tommy’s passion and energy were brought into focus by Appalshop’s Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) where she learned to tell her stories and appreciate her Appalachian roots and identity in a way she never knew possible. After 5 years at AMI, Tommy left the Appalshop nest, studying Psychology and English at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, theater/performance studies at UVA-Wise, and Old-Time mountain music and art at Mountain Empire Community College. While studying and working in the region, Tommy began teaching for the Wise County Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAMs) Program through Pro-Art Association until advancing to the position of Program Manager/Project Coordinator. While teaching old-time fiddle to school-age kids 4-5 days a week in Wise County, Tommy managed booking, coordination, and promotion for a spectrum of fine arts events for Pro-Art, expanded the enrollment of the Wise County JAMs programs, was a mentor, and volunteered as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) through the Lonesome Pine Office on Youth in Big Stone Gap, VA. After six years at Pro-Art, Tommy came back fully into the Appalshop fold, taking on a number of important duties until she finally nestled in a destined and well-suited spot as Administrative & Programmatic Generalist.
Tommy Anderson
Administrative & Programmatic Generalist
Appalshop
Aaron Asbury joined Appalshop in September of 2021 as the Program Coordinator of Appalshop’s Appalachian Media Institute (AMI). Aaron graduated from the University of Pikeville in 2018 with dual majors in Film & Media Arts and Communication. He has worked within the media field for several years now, previously acting as channel manager for Pike TV and a lead organizer of the University of Pikeville Film and Media Arts Festival.
With several family members teaching and working in the education system, Aaron is excited to take on the work of spreading vital artistic skills of film and media arts to the youth of Appalachia.
Aaron Asbury
Visual Communications Manager
Madison Buchanan started working with Appalshop in 2019 as an Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) intern. Since joining, she has been an active participant, even advancing to a peer trainer position. In 2022, Madison was offered a Media Fellowship position with Appalshop to hone her craft. Her experiences with Appalshop led her to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Convergent Media at Morehead State University. In 2023, just after graduating, she was offered a position as a Media Producer for Appalshop. Madison’s work has been published by NPR, Ohio Valley Resource, and KET, among others. Madison is proud to continue telling the stories of her fellow Appalachians and her community.
Madison Buchanan
Media Producer
Appalshop and WMMT
Kathleen Byrne joined Appalshop in 2020 as our Institutional Development Director. She graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a B.F.A in Filmmaking with a concentration in film producing. She later earned her M.A. in Arts Administration from the University of Kentucky. Before joining Appalshop, she spent time working for the Charlotte Regional Film Commission in Charlotte, N.C. There she helped recruit such films and television shows such as Leatherheads, The Hunger Games, Homeland and Banshee. She also worked in economic development as a director at the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. It was through this work that she came to realize the important cross section of arts and economic development. Married to a Letcher County native since 1998, she was happy to have this opportunity to move her family home. She and her husband, Brian Warf, have two sons.
Kathleen is a staff board member.
Kathleen Byrne
Institutional Development Director
Born and raised in Raceland, KY, Charlie comes to us now from Columbia, SC. He has a bachelors in Arts Administration from UK and a masters in Arts Policy and Administration from Ohio State. He’s worked with national opera companies and for international opera festivals along with multi-year stints as an educator for a children’s museum and a fundraiser for a historic preservation and advocacy organization. Charlie is excited to bring the focus of his work back home to Appalachia, a place he’ll openly admit he once resented. But the persistence of a valued advisor and mentor helped him rediscover the meaning of place and culture in his life and he looks forward to funding opportunities for others to realize the same power and agency. Charlie lives with his spouse Malory in Columbia, SC with their two rescues Arlo and Theo and loves chatting Appalachia over a pour of Kentucky spirit.
Charlie Calhoun
Associate Director of Development
Kara Dotten lives in Wise, Virginia, where she is an avid hiker and outdoors-person. She is passionate about Appalachia and live forms of theater, which drew her to working with WMMT. She graduated from the University of Virginia's College at Wise in 2019 with a degree in theater and has worked in several spheres from the classroom to the public library system. In addition to her duties here, Kara is interested in community engagement and currently serves as a board member for The Pro Art Association as well as the Clinch Coalition. As of this year, Kara is a Virginia Master Naturalist. She hopes to stay with Appalshop and celebrate the ways in which it will grow and change.
Kara Dotten
Programming Coordinator
WMMT
Alex joined Appalshop in 2014 as our Executive Director. He graduated from Berea College in 2008 with a B.A. in Philosophy and earned his J.D., Doctor of Laws from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2012. Alex also holds certificates in International Comparative Law from Queen Mary at the University of London, England, and in Thai and Southeast Asian Studies from Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Before joining Appalshop, Gibson practiced law within the torts, insurance, and business litigation practice groups at Stites & Harbison, PLLC in Louisville, and in the business litigation group at Ballard, Spahr, Andrews, and Ingersol in Philadelphia. He also served as a federal law clerk for the Honorable Thomas W. Phillips, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee, where he assisted in the resolution of multi-million dollar lawsuits, federal criminal trials, and questions of constitutional law concentrating on the First Amendment. Alex has provided pro bono legal services to asylum seekers from central and west Africa; conducted tax workshops in West Philadelphia; and served as part of a delegation that went to serve Mombasa, Kenya, in order to teach constitutional law to women’s rights groups in the wake of Kenyan constitutional reform. He was raised in Jackson County, Kentucky on a tobacco farm and will play anyone in 1-on-1 basketball — as long as his opponent signs an embarrassment release form.
Alex Gibson
Executive Director
Kyra Higgins joined Appalshop in 2015 as an AMI intern. Her experience encouraged her to pursue her bachelors degree in the arts at Georgetown College. Kyra is a native East Kentuckian who loves to envision her community through storytelling by way of physicalizations, in place making, writing, poetry, personal accounts, film, media, interviews, paint, dance. She thrives on making space for the voices in her community and the folks she meets. She is hoping to funnel her energy into place and people.
Kyra Higgins
Appalshop Fellow
Parker Hobson
Media/Audio Producer, CMI
Kyla Horn joined Appalshop in 2020 as the Program Manager of All Access EKY, a collaboration to raise awareness and support for comprehensive reproductive health services for women in Appalachian Kentucky. Kyla attended Morehead State University, just like both of the grandparents who raised her, and obtained her degree in Health Promotion. She dedicated her time to developing a program that worked to identify and reduce health disparities in regard to sexual activity in young eastern Kentucky girls. Kyla completed her practicum at a local health department where she discovered her passion for public health and gained an in-depth understanding of the community health system. In her free time, Kyla enjoys reading and spending time with her two dogs!
Kyla Horn
AAEKY Program Manager
All Access EKY
Willa Johnson, Director of Film Department, has grown up in Letcher County and credits Appalshop for her career in youth education and media. She began her work with Appalshop as a member of the Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) in 2007 as a youth intern. She has worked with various nonprofits throughout Central Appalachia as an organizer, media consultant, and community engagement coordinator. She returned to Appalshop in 2017 where she has since directed AMI and has now stepped into the role of Director of Films to help a new wave of talented filmmakers find support for their art. She is a cofounder of the STAY Project and was named one of the Nation's Top 50 Fixers in 2019 by Grist.
Willa is a staff board member.
Willa Johnson
Director of Film Department
Tucker Leighty-Phillips (he/him) grew up in Laurel County, Kentucky, where he booked punk rock shows before becoming a road crew member for a number of national touring bands. He returns to Kentucky from Tempe, Arizona, where he recently completed an MFA in Creative Writing, teaching fiction courses at the undergraduate level as well as in larger community spaces. He hopes his passion for writing and narrative will find a place among and engage a larger network of enthusiastic storytellers.
Tucker Leighty-Phillips
Roadside Theater Program Director
Roadside Theater
Roger May joined Appalshop in 2021 as our Operations Director. Based in Alum Creek, West Virginia, Roger was born in the Tug River Valley on the West Virginia and Kentucky border. His photographs explore the complicated history of place, faith and identity in the coalfields, and have been published in The New York Times, National Geographic, The Guardian, and Oxford American, among others. Roger has taught at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and Hindman Settlement School, lecturing throughout the region, and the photography project that he founded called Looking at Appalachia continues to present a crowdsourced visual representation of the 13 Appalachian states. When he's not making photographs, you can find Roger renovating a 100+ year-old cabin and working on raising bees and chickens.
Roger May
Operations Director
Joshua Caleb Daniel Outsey has been an actor, both on stage and on television. He is also a dedicated Community Organizer and hip hop recording artist and performer. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1986. He attended high school at Berea Community High School in Berea, Ky. At the age of 19, he relocated to Knoxville, TN, where he began organizing for social change. Joshua is a co-founder of “ Socially Equal Energy Efficient Development” (SEEED) in Knoxville , TN. For over a decade, he has worked as an advocate for racial equality and economic and environmental justice in and around urban and rural Appalachia. In 2014 He served as a fellow in the Appalachian Transition Fellowship at the Highlander Center for Education and Research. He continues to promote diversity and inclusion through his artistic performance and creative writing. Currently, Joshua is a new employee on the archive team at Appalshop. He has been researching and documenting the history of Black Churches throughout Central and South Central Appalachia. When he is not writing music and poetry, Joshua enjoys being outdoors. His affinity for nature is fulfilled when he is hiking, camping, or hanging out with his friends around campfires. Currently, he lives in Big Stone Gap, VA with his wife, Terran Young, and their daughter, Eden.
Joshua is a staff board member.
Josh Outsey
Project Documentation Coordinator
Appalshop Archive
Mimi Pickering began learning filmmaking at Appalshop in 1971. The recipient of numerous awards such as a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Kentucky Arts Council Artist Fellowships, her film The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry in 2005. Other documentaries include Chemical Valley, which aired on the PBS series P.O.V., and Hazel Dickens: It’s Hard to Tell the Singer From the Song. Most recently Mimi and former Appalshop filmmaker Anne Lewis produced Anne Braden: Southern Patriot, a biography of the storied civil rights and civil liberties activist. As Director of Appalshop’s Community Media Initiative (CMI), Mimi produces Making Connections News, a WMMT program and podcast exploring sustainable economic options for the coalfields. She is also Appalshop team leader for All Access EKY, a collaboration to raise awareness and support for comprehensive reproductive health services for people in Appalachian Kentucky, and manages Prevent Diabetes EKY, a story-based health promotion initiative.
Mimi Pickering
CMI Project Director
Community Media Initiative and All Access EKY
Rachel Rosolina joined Appalshop as our Communications Director in January 2023. Born and raised in the shadow of Roan Mountain in East Tennessee, Rachel graduated from Berea College with a bachelor of arts degree in English and a minor in Appalachian Studies. She then earned a master of fine arts in creative nonfiction from West Virginia University. With an affinity for the written word, Rachel spent many years in the publishing industry, working at such houses as West Virginia University Press, Solution Tree Press, and Indiana University Press, before refocusing her marketing and publicity background into organizational communications in Appalachia. In her free time, Rachel loves reading, writing, watching films, and traveling. She has a lifelong goal of visiting all the continents. For press or media requests, reach her at: press @ appalshop . org
Rachel Rosolina
Communications Director
Daryl Royse joined Appalshop in 2017 as Financial Director. He is a native of Flemingsburg, Kentucky, and graduated from Georgetown College with degrees in Accounting and English. Daryl lived in Lexington, KY, for over 20 years, working as an Accountant, specializing in financial analysis, cost accounting, and business planning. He also served over 15 years on several LGBT non-profit boards, working to improve access to basic services, promote equality and fairness, and facilitate community awareness. In 2015, Daryl and his husband, Brad Shepherd, relocated to Whitesburg and opened Heritage Kitchen, an American comfort food restaurant. Daryl is currently completing his MBA at Morehead State University, and when not working enjoys spending time with family, including their children, Auston and Jay.
Daryl Royse
Financial Director
Caroline Rubens joined Appalshop in 2007 as staff Archivist. In her current role as Director of the Appalshop Archive, she supervises the preservation, cataloging and dissemination of Appalshop’s archival holdings, manages public programming initiatives, and leads fundraising efforts. Rubens holds an MA in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and advocates in various forums for the preservation of independent and community media. She has participated in professional and scholarly conferences, presenting on topics ranging from the management of a non-profit regional repository to the creative re-use of archival materials. She believes that preserving the archival records of historically underrepresented groups encourages new scholarship and understanding and inspires members of a community to re-envision the future. Rubens is a native of northern New Jersey, was a longtime resident of New York City, and now happily calls Eastern Kentucky home. She remains, however, a Mets fan.
Caroline Rubens
Archivist
Leo Shannon joined Appalshop in 2021 as our Archive Assistant. Leo is a fiddler and visual artist from Seattle, Washington who learned to play as a boy from older musicians around him and from friends his own age, particularly those who shared his interest in American traditional music. Since age 7, Leo has played as part of a group of friends called The Onlies, who continue to travel the country performing old time music. Before moving to Whitesburg, Kentucky, he spent four years in Swannanoa, North Carolina, studying regional history and sound technologies, and exploring the deep world of archives.
Leo Shannon
Archive Assistant
Jessica Shelton joined Appalshop as our Development Associate in 2019 and now has transitioned to be Director of Appalshop's Appalachian Media Institute (AMI). Originally from Floyd County in Eastern Kentucky, Jessica graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2015 with a degree in Media Arts and Studies. She is also an alum of the Governor's Scholar Program, and has a passion for fostering and maintaining local talent. As part of this vision, Jessica is thrilled to be making the move to AMI to further build regional power for young Appalachians as media-makers and creators of their own narratives. Before returning to Kentucky to work for Appalshop, Jessica worked in advertising and early childhood education, with experience in competitive markets in St. Louis, Nashville, and Denver. When she isn't working for the Shop, Jessica can be found hanging out with her two lovely cats, hiking, painting, or cooking up new and old favorite recipes in the kitchen.
Jessica Shelton
AMI Project Director
Nicole Smith joined Appalshop as our Executive Assistant in January 2022 and in October of 2023 became our Administrative Director & Human Resources Generalist. Raised in Boone County, Kentucky, Nicole graduated from Northern Kentucky University with a degree in Communication Studies. She began her career serving Kentucky’s teens as a regional director, volunteer coordinator, and program director for the Kentucky YMCA Youth Association. Nicole went on to serve as an administrative assistant in the college office at the Summit Country Day School in Cincinnati, Ohio as well as the college office coordinator at The Dalton School in New York, New York. In her free time Nicole enjoys baking, cheering on the Cincinnati Reds, and watching countless hours of Youtube video essays.
Nicole Smith, aPHR
Administrative Director & Human Resources Generalist
Shane Terry comes from a humble background within Letcher County's neighboring county of Knott. Shane has been involved with many programs under Appalshop's umbrella, including his first WMMT radio show, The Shanger Zone, in 2010. Since then, he has honed many of his skills, including broadcasting and filmmaking, at Berea College. After graduation, Shane went on to work with other partners on film and documentation throughout the region, as well as his own personal interests that include environmental and socio-economic issues. After coming to WMMT as the Operations Coordinator, Shane's journey has come full circle as he now puts DJs behind the wheel to host their own shows. So far, he has made professional and personal connections with our community DJs and has supported the many different visions they have brought to the station. Shane feels strongly that WMMT is a place where "we don't just play old-time and bluegrass. Our DJs bring their own styles, genres, backgrounds, and personalities to WMMT, and that in itself illustrates our complex reality in central Appalachia." When not in the station, Shane likes to get behind the camera and carry a beat as a drummer for different bands.
Shane Terry
Operations Coordinator
Tiffany Turner (she/her) is a Florida-born, Mississippi-raised Southern girl. In her former career, she was a healthcare professional (Nurse) for 13 years. Her expertise spanned across home healthcare, pediatrics and geriatrics. She is a community activist in Columbus, MS, where she and her husband have spent a decade leading a youth-based nonprofit organization focused on growing the community through fun and festivals. Tiffany is a voting rights advocate and has assisted with voting rights restoration in both Mississippi and Alabama. She is currently lead organizer of Performing Our Future, a national coalition of four delegations (Alabama, Kentucky, Maryland, and Wisconsin) where we co-create and share knowledge to collectively own what we make. She enjoys singing, dancing and changing the world one day at a time.
Tiffany is a staff board member.
Tiffany Turner
Community Development Coordinator
Community Media Initiative
Eric VanHoose first joined Appalshop in 2018 and has been a Bloomberg Fellow and Systems Administrator since 2021. As Educator for Appalshop’s Appalachian Media Institute, Eric launched a 3D printing pilot program teaching six apprentices how to design and print 3D media. Eric received Ithaca College’s S’Park Mentor award in the fall of 2019 in recognition for his work with AMI. After successfully creating the second Collegiate Esports Program in the nation, VanHoose went on to become the Founding Chairman of the National Association of Collegiate Esports. As a born-and-raised Appalachian, Eric is happy to be working in media and technology in his home region.
Eric VanHoose
Systems Administrator
Téa Wimer joined Appalshop in 2021 as our WMMT Development Coordinator and in 2022 was promoted to General Manager of the station. Téa has a deep love and appreciation for community radio and its transformative and comforting powers. A paid summer gig at WPRB in Princeton, New Jersey led to a weekly show as DJ Dewey and Peppermint Pig, and they spent more than two years at the station as Development & Business Director in an opportunity to truly be in the guts of community/college radio. Téa graduated in 2019 with a B.A. in Religious Studies from Princeton University, with special interests in gender/sexuality studies and ethnography. Their hobbies include graphic design, animation and indie comics, food everything, and being a good old school pen pal.
Téa Wimer
WMMT General Manager