Bruce McCamish photo
A conversation with the Smokies' philanthropic leader
Soehn (center) stands with (from left) Friends founding board member Gary Wade, event host Jim Ogle, Friends Board Chair Sharon Pryse and Smokies Superintendent Cassius cash during a May barn party event that raised $400,000 for the park.
After 34 years working for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Dana Soehn has a new position—president and chief executive officer of Friends of the Smokies, the park’s official fundraising partner. She is the fourth person to lead the organization, coming on board as Friends celebrates its 30th birthday this year.
Soehn, whose last role for the park was management assistant and spokesperson, has filled many job descriptions throughout her career. She started out as a college intern and progressed to job titles including biological technician, Parks as Classrooms coordinator and volunteer coordinator. Each job, she said, has helped to prepare her for this new role.
Soehn takes the reins at a critical point in the history of both Friends of the Smokies and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. As the park faced stagnant federal funding coupled with rising costs and visitation over the past decade, Friends funding has gone toward basic operational needs, not solely to the signature projects the nonprofit is known for. This year, the park is requiring visitors to purchase parking tags, resulting in a new revenue stream that should allow Friends to get back to the kinds of projects it was created to carry out.
What led you to take this recent turn in your career path?
If you had asked me six months ago, did I envision this transition, I would have told you it was the furthest thing from my mind. One of the things I was reflecting on that really led me to taking this position was thinking about how I could help be a part of building sustainable support for the park as we work on the next 100 years of service. We’re about a decade away from the 100-year anniversary. The creation of the park is so rooted in philanthropy. I think there’s that same commitment in the people who love the park today, to continue it in a way that looks a little different than … when they were establishing the park. That’s pretty exciting to me to be a part of this specific moment in time.
Friends of the Smokies photo
A conversation with the Smokies' philanthropic leader
Dana Soehn has been serving as Friends of the Smokies’ president and CEO since April.
As president and CEO, what are your responsibilities?
My role is to help lead in how we develop partnerships to create donor opportunities, and to ensure that we are doing that in a manner that is reflective of the agreement we have with the park. So we create our partnerships in a way that give opportunities for stewardship for our donors, as well as the opportunity to connect with a need that may have special meaning for that particular donor or particular group. The Friends of the Smokies is the only philanthropic partner for the national park, and so our mission is to support the park’s greatest needs.
Now that the park has revenue from the parking tag program to cover its basic needs, how has Friends of the Smokies’ focus shifted?
The Friends have been helping fund basic maintenance services to help clean restrooms and to keep the lights on in some of the facilities. Now that the parking tag funds are there to help support those operational needs, the Friends can get back to their roots by supporting the signature projects that provide that margin of excellence and the work that the park wants to be able to do. An example is federal dollars and parking tag monies help support annual trail maintenance, but it’s the Friends of the Smokies Trails Forever money that allows those signature full-scale trail renovations to take place. So the funds that the Friends are raising are, I think, just as critical today as they were 30 years ago when the Friends were founded.
What are your priorities for leading this organization in the years ahead?
One of my highest priorities in the next five years is to raise the funds we need to fulfill our commitment to launching the Forever Places campaign. That program is very similar to Trails Forever—Friends of the Smokies is funding a full-time crew that will solely be focused on the restoration of the historic structures in the park. All of our one-story cabins are about the same age. Just like your house, the cycle of maintenance is coming due at about the same time. The roofs are failing at the same time. We’re having settling that happens in foundations of these historic structures that need attention now, all at once. So we have a giant challenge ahead, and that is one of my highest priorities.