Nomination Statement for Emily Parish

I am honored to be nominated to serve on the Terrafirma Members Committee for the Southeast region. I love being part of our national land trust community and see this as an opportunity to continue to serve. I remember the early days of my career looking up to some of the ‘land trust legends’ that regularly presented at Rally and other LTA events. After 18 years in the field, I now find myself amongst those legends—whether sitting on a committee or presenting with them—and I am now able to offer my knowledge and experiences to newer land trust staff and emerging leaders across the country. I am always willing to pick up the phone and chat with a colleague from another land trust. Whether it is to lend an empathetic ear or struggle through a sticky wicket together, I love these opportunities when I get to help strengthen the land trust community. I have served on the Standards and Practices Advisory Team and the Conservation Defense Advisory Council, and now I am excited to have the opportunity to serve on the Terrafirma Members Committee. Our community is better served because of our willingness to share our struggles and successes and to come together to work for permanence and excellence.

In my 18 years here at The Land Trust for Tennessee, I have been a project assistant, a project manager, a transactions director, and have worn various hats for the stewardship program. I have worked directly on over 400 conservation transactions, protecting over 120,000 acres across our state. Now as Vice President, I have the immense pleasure of leading our team of professionals—­­3 project managers, 5 stewardship team members, a transactions director, and a GIS manager—each of whom advance the mission of this outstanding organization. Our work is getting more complicated (and at times, more painful) but it is also getting stronger. We are getting better at saying yes to the right projects and no, or not now, to the wrong ones. We are more thoughtful of how we draft our easements, how we document the current conditions of a property, how we keep records, and we are always looking for ways to improve. I see that in our community as a whole—we constantly strive to make our collective conservation work stronger in the hopes that it will stand the test of time. Terrafirma exemplifies how our community works together for the common goal of permanence. I would be honored to serve as a member of the Terrafirma Members Committee to continue to assist our greater community and contribute to our lasting impact.