Appalachian Institute for Mountain Studies
AIMS Executive Director
People
AIMS Executive Director
AIMS Executive Director
AIMS Executive Director
Executive Director
JIM VETETO, PHD
Jim Veteto is an environmental anthropologist, ethnobotanist, agroecologist, permaculturalist, activist, poet, and the founder and executive director of the Appalachian Institute for Mountain Studies (AIMS). He is one of the foremost experts on Appalachian agrobiodiversity and is associate professor of anthropology and Cherokee studies at Western Carolina University. Dr. Veteto has conducted ethnobotanical fieldwork in southern Appalachia, the Ozarks, northern Mexico, British Columbia, and the American South. At AIMS, he cultivates medicinal herbs, annual and perennial vegetables, a ‘food forest of eatin’, and an heirloom Appalachian apple orchard.
AIMS Board of Directors
JOSHUA LOCKYER, PHD
Founding Board Member
Joshua Lockyer, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Arkansas Tech University where he helped start an Associate's degree program in Ozark-Ouachita Studies. He is also Director of the Revitalizing Ozark-Ouachita Seed Traditions (ROOST) seed bank and, with Dr. James R. Veteto, co-editor of Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia: Bioregionalism, Permaculture, & Ecovillages. His research centers on environmentally-focused intentional communities and his service partnerships aim to help co-create more just and regenerative human ecosystems.
JOE HOLLIS
Founding Board Member
Joe Hollis is the founder and director of Mountain Gardens, a botanical garden of useful plants in Celo, North Carolina. Joe is one of the early and prominent growers of Chinese herbs in America and maintains a Chinese apothecary and herbal self-help center. Mountain Gardens contains some 1500 species of medicinal and edible plants, the largest such collection in Eastern North America. He has a degree in history from UNC-Chapel Hill and served in the Peace Corps in Malaysia and Borneo from 1966-68. Mountain Gardens is guided by Joe's philosophy of Paradise Gardening, which for the past 50 years has been urging modern people to walk away from civilization back into a sustainable gardening-foraging lifestyle.
BENNY VETETO
Founding Board Member and AIMS Treasurer
Benny Veteto is a retired colonel, serving in the US Air Force for 26 years as a pilot and expert in International Relations, followed by 10 years flying for UPS. He earned his undergraduate degree from the US Air Force Academy and a Masters in International Relations from Sacramento State University. An avid stamp collector, craft beer drinker, and fly fisherman, Benny serves as the AIMS treasurer.
BRIAN C. CAMPBELL, PHD
Board Member
Dr. Brian C. Campbell is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies at Berry College and the Department Chair of Environmental Science and Studies. Dr. Campbell engages in the propagation, saving and distribution of open-pollinated, “heirloom” seeds and the care and observation of an array of small livestock through the ABC Project and in the documentation of environmental problems and solutions through film-making. His research engages the intersection of human and environment, focusing on strategies and traditional practices for sustainable co-existence. Campbell’s film production venture, Ozarkadia Films allows him to collaborate with students and independent film-makers in the production of ethnographic films related to environmental anthropology and sustainable land management. Campbell has produced five independent documentary films that have screened in film festivals: To Kingdom Come (2019) won the Rome International Film Festival Audience Award for feature films, Damn de Dam (2019) screened at multiple film festivals, Seed Swap (2010) screened on public television (AETN, PBS affiliate), The Natural State of America (2011) won the 2011 Society for Applied Anthropology Film Award and The Night the Blackbirds Fell (2013) received funding from the Arkansas Humanities Council, UCA Foundation, and Inspired Media and screened in four states, including a Georgia premiere at the 2014 Rome International Film Festival. Campbell serves as a dedicated community partner to the Davies Shelters and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Chieftains Museum, Major Ridge Home.
MAIZE
AIMS Spirit Animal