Board of Directors

Our Mission

To provide all people with educational, recreational and interpretive opportunities about natural resources and cultural history.

Interested in making a difference at FIND Outdoors?
Reach out and apply to be a Board Member!

Chad Leatherwood

Chair

Chad is the Senior Sustainability Transformation Manager for Weyerhaeuser Company. In this role, he serves on the Raw Materials Leadership team to ensure responsible sourcing of wood into manufacturing operations and maximize the value of mill by-products to the Company’s financial performance. He also serves on the company’s Energy Strategy Leadership team to reduce both the cost and greenhouse gas impact of mill energy systems. He is a North Carolina native, registered Professional Engineer, and loves the outdoors, cooking and playing music.

Russell (Rusty) L. Garrison

Vice Chair

“Rusty” comes to FIND with 33 years’ experience in the environmental education and natural resource fields, many of those years with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. An avid outdoorsman, Rusty is excited about having a voice that resonates with FIND’s mission of education on our public lands.

Wendell (WC) Godfrey

Finance Chair

WC is an engineer/teacher who has a passion for education and the outdoors. He loves playing pickleball or hiking around western NC and surrounding forests. When approached about a Board position, WC was excited about FIND’s mission and the actions of the organization and teamwork of the staff.

Ashley Hoffman

Governance Chair

Ashley Hoffman is the Executive Director of the Kentucky Association for Environmental Education and the Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance. Her background is in wildlife ecology, environmental education and nonprofit management. In her free time, she enjoys traveling to new places and enjoying time in the outdoors with her husband and their four children.

Larry O. Ascher, Ed.D

Board Member

Larry became aware of the Cradle of Forestry Interpretive Association in American (CFAIA), now FIND Outdoors, during the summer in 1984 while camping at Davidson River. That began a relationship with the US Forest Service, Pisgah National Forest and the Cradle of Forestry Historic site. Larry and his spouse, Hope were educators in Florida and able to spend the summers volunteering both for FIND and USFS as campground hosts, interpreters and other roles. After retiring from full-time employment as a mental health counselor in 2008, Larry has been able to spend more time supporting historic place-based education at the Cradle of Forestry and supporting FIND’s mission.

Eric Caldwell

Board Member

On the Board since 2017, Eric has a long career adopting watershed management policies and best practices and technologies for land stewardship. He currently holds a position as Watershed Project Manager for Jennings Environmental, PLLC.

Jocelyn Wilson

Board Member

Jocelyn joins the family from the Weyerhaeuser’s Giving Fund, where she learned more about how local and regional nonprofits were using their resources to give back to local communities. She spends any available time with her family exploring the Croatan National Forest, across from her home in the eastern coastal plan town of Newport, NC.