Board of Directors

President
 Larry Hawkins – Michigan
Larry is a life-long Michigander and currently serves as the president of the Chief Noonday Chapter in Southwest Michigan. He was enticed into the NCTA by a good friend and hiking companion in 1998, became Vice-president for Trail Management in 2002 and was drafted to assume the presidency of the chapter in 2005. In 2007, he was elected to the Board of Directors as an At Large Director. In 2009, he was appointed 1st Vice-president of the Board. He has a long history of volunteerism in various community organizations in his home town of Hastings, Michigan. He is a practicing family physician.
First VP
 Tom Moberg – North Dakota
Prior to retiring in 2006, Tom had a 40 year career in higher education that included service as a faculty member, IT director, senior administrator, and association executive.  He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Iowa.  Tom grew up in northern Minnesota, and currently lives in Fargo.   Tom currently serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations, and does other volunteer work including trail building and maintenance for the North Country Trail.  Tom and his wife Mary spend as much time as possible at a rustic cabin in northern Minnesota built by her family during the 1940′s.  From that base they help maintain a nearby section of the NCT in the Chippewa National Forest.
VP East
 Mary Coffin – New York
Mary has been a thoroughly involved trail volunteer for over 20 years, maintaining and building trail in central New York along the Finger Lakes Trail, working with landowners and state agencies, and planning and leading hikes. She has held numerous committee posts for the Adirondack Mountain Club, many of which involve organizing major events that hundreds of people have enjoyed. In both her local chapter and on a state-wide organizational level, she has served many years as either board member or chair, so her administrative experience is extensive. Even after tending trail since 1982, Mary still attends local NCTA-sponsored trail-building workshops to help her create the best possible new pathway as her Adirondack Mountain Club – Onondaga Chapter keeps building the NCT toward its eventual east-end goal. Mary has also received the NCTA Distinguished Service Award.
VP West
 Gaylord Yost – Wisconsin
Gaylord was first elected to the NCTA Board in the 1980s while employed by the USDA-Forest Service. He served as their representative on the Board until his retirement in 1994. His tenure with the Forest Service included working as a District Ranger, Job Corps Center Director, Assistant Forest Supervisor, and as Eastern Region program manager for wilderness, scenic areas, rivers, trails, and dispersed area recreation. Since then, he has devoted his time and efforts to building the North Country Trail and its community in Wisconsin. He also has served as volunteer Wisconsin Trail Coordinator and Great Lakes Coordinator and in various officer roles with Wisconsin’s Heritage Chapter. He is the recipient of a NCTA Lifetime Achievement Award, Distinguished Service Award, and he was chosen Chapter Volunteer of the year several times.
Secretary
 Lorana Jinkerson – Michigan
Lorana Jinkerson has been active in the North Country Trail Hikers Chapter in Marquette, since her retirement as a professor of educational technology at Northern Michigan University in 2005. She was appointed to the NCTA Board of Directors in the fall of 2008 and elected to the position of secretary in August 2009. Lorana is currently the NCTH Chapter president, webmaster, newsletter editor, media/communications contact, trail adopter and trail crew member. In 2009, Lorana wrote a, children’s book about the NCT, Nettie Does the NCT: North Country Trail and has donated all profits from the sale of the book to the Association. She is a member of NCTA’s Founder’s Circle, the chair of the NCTA Awards Committee and also the ad hoc Land Protection Committee. In 2009 she received the NCTA Communicator of the Year Award.
Joyce Appel – Pennsylvania
Joyce is a retired school teacher. Her multiple outdoor interests and activities on adventure trips always left a lasting impression on her students as they watched her slides in class.  Joyce has also been involved in many outdoor organizations such as AYH, Butler Outdoor Club (former president), Sierra Club, Explorers Club, Nature Conservancy, Keystone Trails Assn.,  and Moraine State Park Regatta. She is also a board member of the Butler Hunting, Fishing and Outdoor Show. Through the years, she has organized local and state wide events such as the “Outdoor Extravaganza”, worked on fundraisers, led hiking and canoe trips, and has been involved in building the NCT in Pennsylvania.

Jack Cohen – Pennsylvania
Jack is the Executive Director of Butler County (Pennsylvania) Tourism & Convention Bureau (BCTCB), to which he was appointed in 2003. In this position, he oversees all marketing and promotional opportunities for BCTCB’s members. Jack has been a member of the Butler Outdoor Club since 2006.  He has served as a board member for many organizations, including the Regatta at Lake Arthur, the North Country Trail, Moraine Preservation Fund, the International Association of Family Entertainment Centers  and the Cranberry Area Chamber of Commerce.
Dave Cornell – Michigan
Dave served several previous terms as a director of the North Country Trail Association and continued to serve the Chief Noonday Chapter. A founder of the Chapter, he has long been active in the Association and served for many years as a full-time volunteer with the National Park Service. His degrees in accounting and law have provided much needed expertise for the Association over the years. Dave has also received the NCTA Distinguished Service Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award.

Garrett (Garry) S. Dill Jr. – Ohio
Garry has been a member of the Buckeye Trail Association (an NCTA Affiliate) for more than 10 years. Following his retirement as a veterinary pathologist, 12 years ago he joined the Buckeye Trail Crew of which he is still a member, trail maintainer and coordinator. He was most recently appointed as the BTA representative to the NCTA. His vision for the future includes more off road (certified) trail in Ohio and increased communication and cooperation between the affiliates and chapters within Ohio and with the NCTA. He lives in Columbus, OH.

Brian Pavek – Minnesota
Brian serves as president of the Star of the North chapter. He serves on other trail boards and as a trail volunteer in both state and regional positions. During the great recession he served nearly full time as a volunteer with the NCTA, the National Park Service, the Chippewa National Forest, and with the American Hiking Society. At the present time he works in manufacturing as production supervisor/auditor in the medical devices and semiconductors industry.

Lynda Rummel – New York
Prior to retiring, Lynda taught at Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, and worked at the Rochester Institute of Technology as a professor and academic administrator.  She holds a Ph.D from SUNY – Buffalo.  Lynda became a section maintainer for the Finger Lakes Trails Conference (FLTC), and then one of their Regional Trail Coordinators.  She headed up the FLTC’s NCT Certification Committee and the Maps and Guides Committee, and also became a NPS Gold Star trail evaluator.  Lynda was trained in the Universal Trail Assessment Process, became a certified sawyer, organized a trail building training team for the FLTC and conducted training workshops.  Currently she chairs the NCTA Field Grant Committee, works on the NCTA Board’s Trail Building and Maintenance Committee, and serves as Director of Trail Quality for the FLTC.

John Heiam – Michigan
John spent his working career in Chicago as a systems analyst, computer systems auditor, and high school math teacher.  He has a B.A. and MBA degrees from Michigan State and a MST (Master of Science in Mathematics) from the University of Illinois at Chicago.  John met his wife on a Sierra Club outing, and both were active outings leaders for the Chicago group of the Sierra Club.  When they retired in 2000 they moved to the Traverse City Michigan area, and immediately became active in local outdoor organizations.  John is the webmaster for the Traverse Area Paddle Club.   In 2001 John became president of the Grand Traverse Hiking Club, and has held the post ever since.  In 2007 he was presented with a NCTA Leadership Award.  He was appointed to the NCTA Board in 2009.

Ray Vlasak – Minnesota
Ray has been an NCTA member since 1989, and a volunteer since 1998. He was active in the Itasca Moraine Chapter when it was formed in 2001 and has been president of the Laurentian Lakes Chapter since its inception in 2007. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and worked for the 3M Company in research and development for 33 years, retiring in 1999. Ray recently resigned after 7 years as the Chairman of Forest Township and currently is a member of the Becker County Park and Recreation Board, Bad Medicine Lake Area Association, and Chairs the Bad Medicine Lake Area Foundation Board. He and his wife Lynette own and operate High Pines Resort on Bad Medicine Lake.  Ray received an NCTA Vanguard Award in 2006, Honor Award in 2008, and Leadership Award in 2009.
Doug Thomas – Minnesota
Doug grew up in Madison, WI., and earned a BA in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin in 1978.  He moved to the Twin Cities area in 1979 and spent 8 years there as CPA in public accounting, then 19 years as CFO of a privately held agribusiness company.  During that time he took up marathoning and ultra-marathoning and, in 1991, was part of the group that organized the first 100 mile running race on the Superior Hiking Trail.  Since 2001, Doug has spent several months each year in Flagstaff, AZ, where he became involved in volunteer trail work on the Arizona Trail.  After retirement in 2006, Doug became a Trail Steward on a segment of the Arizona Trail near Flagstaff and took up backpacking. His long term goals include to thru-hike one or more long trails.