Our Board of Directors
Gail Bullwinkel, President (Somerville,TN) has been technically involved with water and water treatment chemistry as well as responsible for compliance data for NPDES permits. Gail has an understanding of the environmental issues that municipalities and other agencies must comply with and looks forward to broadening that knowledge through the affiliation with the Tennessee Clean Water Network.
Gail previously owned a home and a business on Tims Ford Lake in Franklin County, TN where she enjoyed skiing and other water sports as well as supported fishing and camping through her business. Gail and her husband, Gary, continue to own a home overlooking the Tennessee River in Benton County and consider it a blessing and a responsibility to protect that beautiful area.
Jennifer Mills, Secretary (Chattanooga, TN) was born on the beautiful coast of South Carolina in the historic port city of Georgetown. Water was the major element in Georgetown and Jennifer can remember the beautiful backdrop it provided for her hometown. Years later, urban sprawl, lack of codes, lack of enforcement, bad land use choices, dumping and acid rain have all contributed to the degradation of our waterways. She has no doubt that the damage done can be mitigated.
Jennifer's hobbies include music, gardening, travel, cooking and birdwatching. She also serves on the Board of Crabtree Farms and the historic Kosmos Woman's Club of Chattanooga.
Dennis McCarthy, Treasurer (Knoxville, TN) began his career in the 1960s as a park ranger for the National Park Service, working at the Grand Canyon and the Blue Ridge Parkway. In the mid-1970s, he and his wife, Judy, ran Peters Valley Craftsmen, an art school at Delaware Watergap National Recreation Area, operated in cooperation with the National Park Service. For more than 20 years, Dennis worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority, as a field ecologist—an environmental planner, Assistant to the Director of Environmental Quality, a speechwriter for the TVA Board, and the head of TVA's publications.
Dennis retired from TVA in 1997 and went to work for the University of Tennessee's Energy, Environment and Resources Center, as the editor in chief of Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy. During that time, he taught environmental law as an adjunct professor at Tusculum College.
In the early 1990s, Dennis and his wife formed McCarthy and McCarthy, a general civil-litigation law firm.
As an ecologist and environmental policy analyst for TVA for many years, Dennis developed an early conviction that the watershed is the fundamental unit of sustainable development. He foresees working with the Tennessee Clean Water Network as a return to an early and enduring love.
Greg Buppert (Nashville, TN) is an associate attorney with Dodson, Parker and Behm, a small Nashville law firm with a diverse practice that includes, among other issues, environmental law. In 2004, Greg served as a law clerk at the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, NC. His educational credits include a B.A. in Geology from Bowdoin College, Master's in Resource Ecology from Duke University, and a J.D. from George Washington University Law School. Greg is a member of the American, Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations.
Greg is dedicated to conservation as both a personal and professional ethic. As a hiker and a fisherman, the rivers, streams, and wetlands of Tennessee are especially important to him. He is hopeful that his service on the TCWN Board will allow him to exercise his education and training to directly confront some of the challenging environmental issues facing Tennessee. In addition to his education and skill, Greg brings energy, commitment, and enthusiasm to the TCWN Board.
Janet King (Seymour, TN) lives on a farm in Sevier County and worked as a high school English teacher and librarian for 35 years before retirement in June 2007. She has been both Seymour High School Teacher of the Year and Sevier County Secondary Teacher of the Year and presently is Vice-President of the Gamma Iota Honor Society for teachers. She is Chair of the Sevier County Public Library Board of Trustees and has been instrumental in the current project of building a new state-of-the-art public library for Sevier County. She serves on the Foundation of the Sevier County Public Library and has also served on the Nolichucky Regional Library Board.
A graduate of the Leadership Sevier Class of 2006, her community involvement continues to be libraries, community development issues, environmental concerns, and educational concerns. She feels that water quality is at risk in her county and throughout the state and is willing to take a leadership role in maintaining healthy water and a safe environment. She has been active in the TN Clean Water Network for 3 years and attended the 2006 and 2007 River Rallies and Washington, D.C. Lobby Day. Janet is married and has a daughter, Diana, who has recently been selected Head of the Film, Theater, and Special Collections Library at U.C.L.A. Janet's hobbies are reading, writing, cooking, gardening, flowers, walking, music, traveling, theater, symphony, and movies.