Smokies creates emergency manager position
Liz Hall has been selected as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s first emergency manager.
The new position will coordinate emergency medical response and search and rescue operations between local agencies and park personnel, as well as lead preventative search and rescue efforts such as providing safety information to hikers using staff and volunteers.
A Knoxville native, Hall comes to the Smokies from Yellowstone National Park, where she served in the emergency services office since 2017. She has also worked as a law enforcement ranger in Yellowstone’s Lamar River District, and before arriving at Yellowstone she was a backcountry ranger at Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Skagway, Alaska. She was selected for the Smokies job by Chief Ranger Lisa Hendy.
Hall holds a master’s degree in public administration and is a nationally registered paramedic. She spends her free time volunteering with a local search and rescue team and working her search and rescue dog, Reu. She is moving to the Smokies with her husband, Travis Hall, who is also a ranger, and their young son.