Welcome to our new BRNN Board Members!

David Teafatiller – Vice President

David moved to Asheville from La Jolla, California in 2017. Back in La Jolla he owned Hike Bike Kayak Sports, a leader in the outdoor adventure tour industry. He moved to Asheville to purchase Cumberland Falls Bed & Breakfast Inn with his wife. 

 It wasn’t long before David’s passion for the natural world and all the flora and fauna of Western North Carolina got the best of him and they decided to do it all again with Hike Bike Kayak Asheville. David, always inquisitive and wanting to pass along interesting and accurate information, enrolled in the Naturalist program at The North Carolina Arboretum. Now, 350 hours of classes and miles of hiking later, he is a final project away from being a certified Blue Ridge Naturalist.

 David has been a tour guide for over 14 years and loving every minute. You won’t know what you have been missing until you hike with David and then you will be amazed. His passion is contagious, his knowledge is abundant and his kindness is key. The trail head may be easy to find, but the Jack in the Pulpit is not.

(in photo with David is Sweetpea our one eyed adventurer!)

Mayo Taylor – Community Liaison

Mayo is originally from California, spent 40 years in the Nashville area, then moved to Asheville after retiring in 2014. Her husband, Bruce Nemerov, is a musician and music scholar. Her daughter and her family live a mile up the road and their son is in Bryson City. 

Her career was split between work as an academic librarian and advocacy work for non-profits that included 12 years as staff and then Director of the Tennessee Environmental Council, where she worked on a wide variety of issues. Mayo co-founded the Stones River Watershed Association and served on a number of other non-profit boards and public committees in Tennessee including 11 years as a planning commission member. She is about to roll off the board of the WNC Sierra Club group after 4 years as Vice-Chair. She has completed about 140 hours of the Blue Ridge Naturalist courses at the NC Arboretum and currently volunteers there as a gardener and engineer for the Rocky Cove Railroad and also for EcoExplore.

Barbara Kotts – Membership Director

Barb grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania but the majority of her life was spent in Chicago.  She worked for a sales organization and called on most of the major retailers in the U.S.  They represented many factories but primarily goods sold to outdoor living and gardening departments. She had the opportunity to sell many products and loved each of the categories. Barb`s specialty was lawn & garden tools and the last 10 years of her career was working with factories developing lawn & garden tools for the U.S. market. She had a wonderful career which allowed her time to be creative and the opportunity to travel extensively in the U.S. and abroad.

Barb retired 6 years ago and moved to Asheville where she discovered the NC Arboretum.  She enjoys taking classes and learning about photography and the natural wonders of Western North Carolina.  A majority of her time is spent volunteering at the Arboretum and her favorite project is tracking box turtles.  Barb enjoys hiking and the beautiful wildflowers and the majestic trees in our area. She loves to travel in her camper and can’t wait to travel overseas again.

Diane Mooney – Website and Publicity Director

Diane grew up in Florida but spent most of her life in Los Angeles working for the LA Weekly and hiking with the Sierra Club. After earning her MFA in Creative Writing in her fifties, she taught mostly online at Florida International University, specializing in composition and professional and technical writing. Diane wrote a food column for the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel called “The Kitchen Next Door.” She taught journalism in English at Shantou University in China for 2 years where she unsuccessfully struggled to learn Chinese. Diane had better luck with cooking lessons and her kitchen may have the best Chinese food in Asheville.  She also got to travel all over Asia, seeing everything from Terra Cotta soldiers in Xian to the golden temples of Luang Prabang in Laos. 

Moving to Asheville 6 years ago sparked her interest in hiking and wildflowers. Diane`s purchase of a house last year, after many years of living in apartments, inspired her to learn all about gardening with native plants. She is a regular at the Wildflower Pilgrimage in the Smokies and is working on her Blue Ridge Naturalist certificate. She is the former chair of the DARN (Downton Asheville Residential Neighbors) steering committee and volunteer at the YMCA’s nutrition hub.