U.S. Forest Service officials announced Friday afternoon that Leisa Cook has assumed the role of area supervisor at Land Between the Parks National Recreation Area in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Cook says she is honored to be given this opportunity to lead the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area and join the Southern Region of the Forest Service. She also said she is excited about the prospect to work together to steward this incredible forest unit with the passionate employees, partners, and volunteers of western Kentucky and Tennessee.
According to LBL officials, Cook most recently served as Deputy Forest Supervisor on the Malheur National Forest in Oregon. She has experience in a wide variety of roles including Director for Tribal Relations in the Washington D.C. office, State and Private Forestry, Forest Supervisor for the Olympic National Forest in Washington, Branch Chief for Community Nutrition Programs with the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service in the Southeastern Region. In addition, she has served in positions with the Health and Human Services’ Indian Health Service, the National Park Service, and the Center for Disease Control.
Regional Forester for the Southern Region Ken Arney says they are pleased to welcome Cook as the new area supervisor at LBL. He says she brings a wealth of knowledge from her experiences in the Forest Service and the USDA, which has well prepared her to work with a diverse set of stakeholders. He added that her dedicated work across public lands will prove Land Between the Lakes is truly in good hands.
LBL officials say Cook was one of the first graduates of a newly established and accredited Environmental Health Degree Program at Wright State University. She continued her learning by gaining a Masters’ Degree in Business Administration and a Masters’ Degree in Public Health.
Cook’s career has included work in the fields of land, cultural, and natural resource management; social entitlement administration and homelessness; public/behavioral health and injury prevention; emergency management and response; contract/grants management; human capital oversight; regulatory enforcement; and EEO and Civil Rights assurance.
Cook officially began her duties at Golden Pond on September 26.
Land Between the Lakes encompasses more than 170,000 acres of forest, wetlands and open lands and is one of only two national recreation areas in the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern Region.
