Appalachian Studies Academic Programs

Phil Jamison is a nationally-known dance caller, old-time musician, and flatfoot dancer. He has called dances, performed, and taught music throughout the U.S. and overseas, including more than thirty years as a member of the Green Grass Cloggers. His flatfoot dancing was featured in the film Songcatcher for which he al- so served as Traditional Dance Consultant. He toured and played guitar with Ralph Blizard and the New Southern Ramblers, but he also plays fiddle and banjo. In 2004, he co-founded Dare To Be Square!, a weekend workshop for square dance callers. Phil’s forthcoming book about the history of Appalachian dance, “Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics,” will be published by the University of Illinois Press in 2015. Phil teaches mathematics as well as Appalachian music and Appalachian studies at Warren Wilson College, where he also coordinates the Old-Time Music and Dance Week at the Swannanoa Gathering.

Marc Williams is executive director of Plants and Healers International in Asheville, North Carolina, and serves on the board of directors of the Appalachian Institute for Mountain Studies. He has studied the people-plant connection intensively while learning to employ botanicals for food, medicine, and beauty. Marc added a graduate minor in geography and planning to his Master of Arts degree in Appalachian studies while at Appalachian State University. He has spent over a decade working at restaurants and farms with a focus on sustainability and has visited over one hundred botanical gardens and research institutions during extensive travel in the United States and abroad. Marc has taken thousands of pictures of representative plants during these visits and taught clients about the world of plants, people, and their interface while working with over fifty organizations in the last few years.

Tamara McNaughton 2007, works as the Agriculture Program Manager for Appalachian Sustainable Development. She coordinates programs focused on strengthening the local food economies in Virginia and Tennessee including Rooted in Appalachia and the Appalachian Farmers Market Association and that association’s Local Food Guide. She is also a certified organic farmer of two acres and the Fee Waiver Coordinator for Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group.

Leila Weinstein Leila Weinstein is the Director of the Bascom Lamar Lunsford “Minstrel of Appalachia” Festival and Program Coordinator at the Ramsey Center for Regional Studies at Mars Hill University in Madison County, North Carolina. She organizes programs for students, faculty, and community members that explore the culture, history, and arts of the Appalachian Mountains and also teaches Appalachian Studies courses. Prior to working at Mars Hill University, Leila was the Director of Education and Outreach at the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum and was the founding director of the Caldwell County Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) program.