Letter from TennGreen: New Director of Marketing & Communications

Tennessee is in my bones.

The two-story cabin my great-great-grandfather built is a standing residence in Spring Hill today. The family cemetery, where he and much of our Derryberry and O’Neal family are buried, predates the establishment of our state in 1796 and rests just down the road. There, we’ve raised horses for generations. My grandmother grew up riding and attending school here in Nashville. And the man she would marry, William Joe, came from a long line of settler and Indigenous farmers whose sweat, blood, and tears shaped the Middle Tennessee we know today.

Their son, Steve, my father, was raised with great love and respect for Tennessee in kind. My youth was spent camping in our state parks, fly-fishing our bountiful streams, and hiking the Great Smoky Mountains. Experiencing Fall Creek Falls for the first time, Father’s Day kayaking trips down the Harpeth, and seeing my first black bears in the Smokies with him are among my most cherished memories.

This love extends into marriage with my better half, Brandee. We wed in the mountains we grew up in, and raise highland cattle in the far northwest corner of Davidson County today. But through it all, it has been a deep, guttural calling to protect wildlife that has guided my adulthood.

The first steps came with an externship and employment at the AZA-accredited Nashville Zoo, where I became accredited in behavioral husbandry myself (while working with over sixty native and exotic species). Wildlife tech and rescue certification with Middle Tennessee’s great Walden’s Puddle followed, alongside naturalist writing as a cherished career. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with, interview, and collaborate alongside top experts from the National Wildlife Foundation, National Park Service, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, National Geographic, and many others along the way. Still, joining the TennGreen Land Conservancy team is the brightest spark of purpose I’ve felt.

Becoming the first Director of Marketing and Communications for our nonprofit—which has conserved 50,072 acres of land, protected more than 194 miles of streams and rivers, created or expanded 46 public spaces, and protected essential habitat for 69 rare species (including my favorite animal, the black bear)—feels the culmination of everything in this letter. To say I’m ecstatic would be an understatement. There is so much more to be done, but this is a world-class team with grassroots heart.

TennGreen is beyond up to the task.

They’ve proven this for almost three decades, and it’s an honor to join in redefining what’s possible in American conservation.

If you’re reading this, you are a (tremendously valued) supporter of TennGreen yourself. I cannot thank you enough, and look forward to serving you as we conserve the brilliance of our home, Tennessee.

Much more to come,

Jon D. B.

Director of Marketing & Communications