Lisa Hendy just became the first woman to be named chief ranger at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. She’s in charge of emergency operations for the park, which covers 800 square miles on the Tennessee-North Carolina border and is America's busiest national park, with 11.4 million visitors last year.
Hendy has spent 25 years in the park service and has experienced everything from dangerous rescues to surprise wildlife encounters.
What’s it like to work in a place that millions of people from around the world come to visit? Here’s our conversation.
Let's keep the conversation going. Who do you want to hear from next on the SouthBound podcast? Submit your idea in the box below. You can also send a tweet to @tommytomlinson or @wfae, and email me at ttomlinson@wfae.org.
Show notes:
- A story on Hendy from the Smoky Mountain News
- The Great Smoky Mountains National Park home page
- A Garden & Gun story about reports of mountain lions in the park
- My favorite thing about the park: the synchronous fireflies
Other music in this episode from bensound.com
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SouthBound is a production of WFAE. Our host is Tommy Tomlinson. Our producer is Nick de la Canal. Our audience engagement manager is Joni Deutsch, and our main theme comes from Josh Turner.