Dr. Tom Hatley is an Asheville-based consultant focused on collaboration and strategy for conservation, rural development, and social impact initiatives. Trained as a historian and forester, he has 30 years of experience with the farms, communities, businesses, and forests of the Appalachian region from New York to Alabama. He has written extensively on the intersection of history, equity and environment, and held the Sequoyah Distinguished Professorship in Cherokee Studies at Western Carolina University from 2002-2006. He serves as an Advisor for the People and Planet Fund.