Wolf Gap Board of Directors
Beatrice K. Coleman - Board President
Beatrice Ann Kimbrough-Coleman was born in Prospect, TN. She retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency on Redstone Arsenal, AL in 2020 after 40 years of service. Beatrice received her Associates Degree from Martin Methodist College in 1975.
She is a life member of the Giles County Branch of the NAACP. She attends and volunteers at the Giles County Senior Center. She is a member of the Black Farmers’ Association. She is involved with her son’s Culture Valley Farms, LLC endeavors.
She is married to Sam Coleman. They have a two adult children, Robyn and Roger. She enjoys volunteering and being of service to others resulting in positive results in their lives.
Katie Whitfield
Katie Whitfield moved to Giles County in 2014, drawn to the area because of its beautiful landscapes. Katie earned degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Environmental Engineering and Literature in 2001. Her work experience includes a variety of project management roles, including Environmental Consulting, Interior Design, and Retail Planning and Buying.
Katie left the corporate world and is a stay-at-home mom to her three children, but she jokes that she is never actually at home because she remains so busy. She helped found the non-profit Breastfeeding Support Group of Pulaski and was a Certified Lactation Counselor. Katie plans the annual Pulaski Touch a Truck Event, and stays involved in many other volunteer and community activities around Giles County, including as a board member of the Giles County Humane Association and the Giles County Inclusivity Coalition.
Katie is the CEO of ServiceTEK Solutions, a software consultancy she owns with her husband, Tom. She is also a Staff Writer for the Pulaski Citizen. She enjoys baking, photography, and crafts.
Rebecca Billard
Rebecca Hudson Billard was born in Memphis, TN. She has a B.A. in History from The University of Memphis. She has 10 years of experience as a paralegal specializing in family and corporate law and 30 years of experience working with children and adults as a horseback riding instructor.
She moved to Pulaski, TN in 2000 and presently is a partner in Partridge Hill Appraisals. LLC where she practices as a Certified Residential Appraiser. She has been on the Boards of Governors of several nonprofits and founded 2 non-profit youth organizations, Wolf River and Magnolia Pony Clubs.
She is married to Pierre Billard and has one son, Philip Levi, and grandson, Hudson Levi. Her passion is excellence in education and so enjoys serving on the Wolf Gap Board.
Claudia Oakes
Claudia is a Pulaski native. She earned her B.A. in French at Rhodes College and her Master of Public Administration from George Washington University.
Claudia’s career in the museum field has included positions at the National Air & Space Museum including the museum’s first female curator, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Utah Museum of Natural History, the Cradle of Aviation Museum, and the Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home in Rome, GA.
She has served on the boards of the Wisconsin Federation of Museums, the Midwest Museums Association, the Western Museums Association, the Utah Museums Association, the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums, and the American Alliance of Museums.
Claudia served as a Museum Assessment Program reviewer and a museum accreditation reviewer for the American Alliance of Museums and as a Museums for America grant program reviewer for the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Erin Curry
Erin is the Project Manager for the Pulaski office of Sain Associates and holds a PE license in Tennessee and Alabama. Erin received her BS in Civil Engineering from Tennessee Technological University in 2001. Erin has almost 20 years of experience in transportation design and studies, with a focus on safety projects in recent years.
Erin is deeply involved in the Pulaski, Giles County community. She serves on the Pulaski Board of Zoning Appeals, has completed local and regional Leadership programs, has served on board of directors of the Giles County Chamber of Tourism and Commerce, and is currently a County Commissioner for District 1. In her spare time, Erin travels, reads, knits, kayaks, hikes, and cares for her menagerie of animals.
Pastor William Howard Smith
William Howard Smith was born in Nashville and reared in Columbia, TN. He is a graduate of Columbia Central High School, Columbia State Community College, Middle Tennessee State University and Scarritt College for Christian Workers.
He is a retired Methodist Pastor who serves as the Supply Pastor at Round Hill African Methodist Episcopal Church, Lynnville, TN. For 46 years he served congregations in Tennessee and Kentucky, and was privileged to serve 5 of the 7 A.M.E. Church congregations in Giles County.
Smith has owned and or operated several businesses in Lincoln and Giles Counties and continues serving Giles and surrounding counties with The Rose of Sharon Funeral Service which he founded in 1991.
Smith has helped others to become Licensed Funeral Directors in the State of Tennessee. As a musician, he has served as a private instructor, church musician, Minister of Music, and performed in various states and conducted workshops.
John Finch Nelson
John is a retired U.S. Government employee, who worked 33 years as a civilian employee of the U.S. Army at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, and at the Pentagon, and 3 years for the Treasury Department.
He served 23 years in the Pentagon, with Army-wide leadership in positions such as the Director of Affirmative Action Employment Programs & Director of Black College and University Programs. At the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, he served as a Personnel Manager with responsibility for the recruitment and advancement of black employees, and as the Director of Small Business Programs.
He is a graduate of Bridgeforth High School and Tennessee State University, and has been married for 56 years to Ada (Bonnie Coffey) Nelson. They have four sons (Fred, Diallo, Omar, and Gaylord).
Kelly Fisk Hamlin, Executive Director
Kelly grew up in Madison, Alabama. After finishing her Bachelor’s Degree in History from Sewanee: the University of the South, Kelly worked at Burritt on the Mountain, a living history museum on Monte Sano Mountain in Huntsville, as a Museum Educator and Historic Park Manager. During this time she completed her Master’s Degree in History from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, with her thesis research culminating in a public exhibit about the activities of the Civil Rights Movement in Huntsville.
She has lived in Giles County since 2015 with her spouse Happy, choosing to raise their daughter Helen here. Kelly completed the Leadership Giles program and continues to find ways to support the Giles County community, including serving on the Board of the Giles County Historical Society and as Editor of its quarterly Bulletin, as a member of the Giles County Branch NAACP, and a member on the City of Pulaski’s Council on Inclusive Recognition and Acknowledgement.
Kelly founded the nonprofit Wolf Gap Education Outreach in 2015 to meet the needs of rural Tennessee students who find themselves in a “museum desert” by offering affordable history programs to schools in Giles, Lincoln, Lawrence, and Marshall counties. That organization has grown into the Wolf Gap of today, which continues to grow to meet the needs of its community.