Heather Tucker is a lifelong educator and longtime resident of the Double Springs area, bringing a deep commitment to meaningful, place-based education and community engagement. Her career in education spans a range of leadership roles, including classroom teacher, media technology specialist, and Principal of Double Springs Elementary School. Growing up surrounded by the natural beauty of the Bankhead National Forest fostered Heather’s lifelong appreciation for Alabama’s public lands. In her leadership role at Wild Alabama, she brings together her passion for education and her dedication to protecting wild places—helping connect people to the land while advancing conservation, stewardship, and advocacy efforts across the state. When she’s not working to protect Alabama’s forests, Heather enjoys traveling with her husband and twin teenagers, seeking out quirky historical sites, local stories, and off-the-beaten-path points of interest.

Janice Barrett first became involved with the organization as a volunteer artist and writer with the Bankhead Monitor in 1992, continuing her work when it became Wild Alabama in 1994. She joined the staff in 2002 and now serves as Wild Alabama’s Education and Outreach Coordinator, working primarily in the Bankhead National Forest and the Sipsey Wilderness. Janice is a committed advocate for federal policies that support the restoration and long-term protection of our National Forest ecosystems. She has played a key role in developing many of Wild Alabama’s signature programs, including the Volunteer Wilderness Ranger Program, Wild Wednesday Nature Hikes for Kids and Families, Saving Alabama’s Hemlocks, and the Conservation Through Art program. A Forest Bathing guide, hike leader, and artist, Janice brings creativity, education, and deep ecological knowledge to every aspect of her work. She is a mother and a native of Lawrence County, Alabama, where she lives on her ancestral family farmland.

Lindsay Madison grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where her childhood was spent water skiing on nearby lakes and rivers, camping on sandbars along the Black Warrior River, and searching for fossils and rocks for hours at a time. These early experiences sparked a lifelong love of the outdoors and a desire to help others understand and protect the natural world. Lindsay earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Education from the University of Alabama in 2007 and went on to work as a Naturalist at the Alabama Museum of Natural History, where she gained a deeper understanding of the remarkable biodiversity found within Alabama’s forests and waterways—and the importance of protecting these ecosystems. In 2009, Lindsay became a teacher at the McDowell Environmental Center, where she fell in love with the canyons and waterfalls of the Bankhead National Forest. It was there that she also recognized how many children—and adults—had limited opportunities to experience nature or learn about the native flora and fauna around them. Motivated to change that, Lindsay began hiking local trails every weekend, engaging visitors in conversations about caring for the forest and practicing responsible recreation. In 2019, she became a Leave No Trace Level One Instructor and began volunteering with Wild South. Lindsay joined Wild Alabama in the summer of 2021 as a Stewardship Assistant and has since grown into the role of Stewardship Coordinator. Her work now focuses on stewardship and restoration efforts in the Sipsey Wilderness and the greater Bankhead National Forest.

Jonathan Kelly is based in Oxford, Alabama, and serves in a multifaceted role supporting stewardship, outreach, and education efforts in the Talladega National Forest, including the Cheaha Wilderness and Dugger Mountain Wilderness. An avid wildlife photographer, enthusiastic hiker and backpacker, and devoted lover of nature, Jonathan brings both expertise and joy to the trail—he’s exactly the kind of person you want leading your hike. He is a Wilderness First Responder, Leave No Trace Level 2 Instructor, and a certified crosscut and chainsaw sawyer, bringing critical technical skills to Wild Alabama’s on-the-ground conservation work. Since 2022, Jonathan has led stewardship workdays and interpretive hikes across the forest and is always eager to welcome new volunteers and participants into the field.

Morgan Wilson was born and raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he spent much of his childhood outdoors playing sports. It wasn’t until later—through hands-on outdoor work—that he developed a deeper understanding and appreciation for the living systems around him. Morgan began working at a plant nursery as a loader, an experience that helped him recognize plants as living, interconnected beings rather than just landscape materials. As he moved onto a landscaping crew, he enjoyed the physical labor but became increasingly aware of the destructive practices often associated with the work. This led him to ask how he could apply those skills from a conservation-focused perspective and at a larger ecological scale. That question led Morgan to Wild Alabama, where he joined the organization as a Trail Technician. Now approaching two years with Wild Alabama, he has contributed to trail improvements across the forest through irrigation work, erosion control, reroutes, obstruction removal, rock steps, and other on-the-ground stewardship efforts. While his heart remains in the Sipsey Wilderness, he also works in the Dugger Mountain Wilderness and the Talladega National Forest. Morgan is a B-level sawyer, Volunteer Wilderness Ranger, Leave No Trace Level 1 Instructor, and a Forest Bathing Guide trainee. He is excited about the work ahead and looks forward to continuing to grow his impact.

Anne Markham Bailey is an American poet and author who brings creativity, mindfulness, and deep listening to her work with Wild Alabama. She teaches creative writing and book arts to incarcerated and post-incarcerated individuals through the Alabama Prison Arts and Education Project with Auburn University and serves as a teaching artist with UAB Arts in Medicine. ​Anne is a founding member of the Quorum Poets, a Birmingham-based workshopping collective that hosts The Quorum Poets Present, a monthly reading series featuring a guest poet and open mic. She edited and contributed to The Hemlock Poems (2023), a chapbook whose work was featured in Wild Alabama’s Saving Alabama’s Hemlocks art exhibition. Her first full-length poetry collection, Cold Stone, White Lily (2011), was published in the United Kingdom by the Friends of Julian imprint at the shrine of Julian of Norwich. She is also the author of the chapbook Nancy Marguerite’s Chopin (2018), the independently published children’s picture book The Daring Egg (2020), and The Practice of Being (2022), a creative awareness and mindfulness guidebook. Anne is currently completing a new poetry manuscript, The Conjugation of Winter. ​A certified Forest Bathing and Nature Therapy Guide, Anne is passionate about weaving creative writing, mindfulness, and embodied listening into meaningful connections with the more-than-human world.​ She holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Columbia University, an M.F.A. in Book Arts from The University of Alabama, and an M.A. in Creative Writing from The University of Alabama at Birmingham.​ To learn more about her books, projects, and programs, visit annemarkhambailey.com or follow her on Instagram @annemarkhambailey.

Joseph Jenkins is a field researcher with the Alabama Natural Heritage Program and earned his M.S. in Biological Sciences from Auburn University, where his research focused on the spatial ecology and habitat selection of the Flattened Musk Turtle in the Bankhead National Forest. Joseph has conducted field research on a range of imperiled species across Alabama, including Flattened Musk Turtles, Black Warrior Waterdogs, Eastern Indigo Snakes, Hellbenders, and Red Hills Salamanders. His work contributes to a broader understanding of species conservation and habitat protection in some of the state’s most ecologically significant landscapes. An Alabama native, Joseph is also deeply committed to sustainability, with a personal philosophy centered on hunting, gathering, and striving to live in balance with ecological systems rather than through their degradation.