Meet our board & Directors

Dr. Thomas Carney is a retired Professor Emeritus of Aviation & Transportation Technology at

Purdue University. He earned a BS in Professional Flight, MS in Aviation Climatology, and PhD

in Atmospheric Science, all from Purdue. His primary interests include aviation and flight,

meteorology and climatology, caves and caving, and Mammoth Cave and the Central Kentucky

Karst. Dr. Carney’s awards include the Purdue Distinguished Science Alumnus Award, Aviation

Accreditation Board International Chairperson’s Award and Rudy Frasca Award for Professional

Excellence, and the FAA Wright Brothers’ Master Pilot Award. In addition to his service on the

Friends of Mammoth Cave NP Board (and current chairperson), Dr. Carney serves as Vice

President of Accreditation for the Aviation Accreditation Board International. He is an FAA

Airline Transport Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor, with more than 11,000 flight hours, and a

member of the National Speleological Society since 1960.

Larry Cox has been a Kentucky resident for over fifty years and retired in late 2010 after twenty-five years as State Director for Mitch McConnell, Republican Leader of the United States Senate. Following

retirement from the U.S. Senate, Cox served as Executive Director of Consumer and Environmental Protection and briefly as Deputy Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Prior to

Senate service he served as Secretary for Environmental Policy and Deputy Secretary of the Community

Development Department for Jefferson County Government. Earlier work history included employment as Deputy Director of a regional planning agency and lead planner for a number of small and medium size cities and counties.

Currently, a primary area of activity is operation of a 150-acre farm on the Green River in Hart County where thirty-five acres is committed to forage production and the balance is devoted primarily to cattle grazing and conservation practices. Cox is active in the Louisville Kiwanis Club. He is past chairman of the Board of Directors of the Friends of Mammoth Cave, and former vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Kentucky Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. He also serves on the McConnell Center

Board of Advisors with the 

University of Louisville.

Cox has a Bachelor of Arts from George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University and a Master of Science from the University of Tennessee. He is married to Joanie Cox and they have two adult children and four grandchildren.

Cox divides his time between his residence in Louisville and farm in Linwood.

Rachelle Wright comes to the Friends of Mammoth Cave as Executive Director, with a depth of experience as a thriving business owner, multi-organization project director, and valued educator. She was most recently the Project Director for Cave Country Trails during the designation of the Green and Nolin Rivers Blueway as Kentucky’s first and only National Water Trail.

Rachelle has led migrant education efforts in a region of Kentucky spanning five school districts. She has also spent the last decade successfully building her own media company, Kentucky Content, where she works with a variety of tourism commissions and businesses within the Mammoth Cave region. She is a long-term board member of the Caveland Marketing Association and has been certified by the Southeast Tourism Society as a Travel Marketing Professional.

Amidst her daily routine is getting a dose of serotonin from her rambunctious farm animals, especially the baby goats.

Trish Sherrod is a native of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.  After graduating with her BBA in Finance from the College of William and Mary and her Master of Health Administration from VCU, she worked for LifePoint Health in Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.  Since moving to Bowling Green in July 2013, her family has fallen in love with this region of Kentucky.  In particular, they have been fascinated with the accessibility to so many outdoor activities, and in particular, Mammoth Cave National Park.  

Sarah P. Jarboe is a partner at English Lucas Priest & Owsley, LLP, where she has focused on environmental law for over a decade. Her practice includes environmental permitting; regulatory interpretation; negotiations; and environmental administrative, civil, and criminal litigation. She represents clients on numerous environmental matters, including Clean Water Act (CWA) sections 402 and 404, the Endangered Species Act, the Underground Injection Control Program under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Nonindigenous

Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act.  She is an experienced negotiator, having participated in negotiations in permitting and enforcement cases with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection.

Sarah, along with ELPO Environmental Law attorneys LaJuana Wilcher and Joye Beth Spinks, was recently published in the American Bar Association’s Fifth Edition of Environmental Aspects of Real Estate and Commercial Transactions: Acquisition, Development, and Liability Management, a resource book for attorneys regarding the issues, problems, and pitfalls that can arise when real estate, business, and environmental

law intersect. The ELPO Environmental Law attorneys wrote Chapter 22: Wetlands

Considerations in Real Estate Transactions, which provides an overview of the legal implications of the presence of wetlands on a property, including issues related to Section 404 permitting.

In addition to her work at ELPO, Sarah is an active member and contributor to national and statewide environmental associations and boards. Sarah currently serves as Treasurer on the Board of the Friends of Mammoth Cave National Park. She is an active member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources’ (SEER), serving on SEER’s 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022, and 2024 Fall Conference Planning Committees. Sarah was one of 12 participants selected nationwide for SEER’s Leadership Development Program from 2014 to 2015. In addition, she devoted five years

to the position of Newsletter Vice Chair for SEER’s Smart Growth and Green Building

Committee. Sarah also served as Chair of the Environment, Energy and Resources law section of the Kentucky Bar Association from 2016 to 2017, and previously served as Chair Elect and Vice Chair of that section. 

Sarah is a frequent speaker at environmental conferences, presenting on topics such as the

definition of Waters of the U.S., environmental liability related to waste issues, federal and state environmental audit policies, green infrastructure and consent decrees for water and wastewater utilities, the value of water to the U.S. economy, cooperative federalism,

brownfields, and environmental common law actions and remedies. 

Sarah is a Vanderbilt University Law School graduate, who gained invaluable experience as law clerk for Kentucky Chief Justice John Minton prior to joining ELPO. She has been named a SuperLawyers Rising Star since 2020 and Best Lawyers Ones to Watch since 2021 for environmental law and environmental litigation.

Dr. Michael Goodman, a native of Barren County Kentucky, is a Staff Scientist at Vanderbilt University in the lab of Dr. Charles Sanders in the Department of Biochemistry. Michael is employed in this position as part of an innovative collaboration between Vanderbilt and Deerfield Management Company to develop a therapeutic agent to treat Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease.

Michael attended the University of Kentucky on a full tuition Presidential Scholarship and served as an Ambassador for the College of Arts & Sciences. He graduated cum laude from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry with an emphasis in Biochemistry, and earned the Merck Index Undergraduate Research Award.

Michael continued his education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN as a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry Ph.D. Program. He traveled to Stockholm, Sweden twice to complete collaborative research. He defended his Ph.D. dissertation in March of 2018 and officially graduated with a Ph.D. in Chemistry in May of 2018. Michael was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California-Davis. In November of 2020, Michael returned to Vanderbilt University in Nashville and joined the lab of Dr. Charles Sanders in the Department of Biochemistry as a Staff Scientist.  

Michael has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed publications. He has mentored various undergraduate and graduate students, as well as collaborating with many talented scientists at Vanderbilt and other institutions. His work has been presented at a number of conferences, both domestically and internationally. Michael hopes that his copious hours spent working in the lab will be a lasting contribution to our world and how we treat diseases.

In addition to being a scientist, Michael has a strong connection to Mammoth Cave National Park. While not actively in school, he has been a seasonal interpretive park ranger at Mammoth Cave National Park. Working at Mammoth Cave allowed Michael to lead thousands of visitors from around the world through the world’s longest cave system, educating them on its geological and historical significance. Michael followed in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, Lyman Cutliff, who was a cave guide prior to the cave’s designation as a National Park. Additionally, his grandfather, Lewis Cutliff, was a cave guide for numerous years and retired as the Chief of Interpretation in 1992. Michael continues to hold a strong love for the cave and visits frequently to see old friends, hike, and kayak.

Outside of his professional duties, Michael has a strong passion for the outdoors, especially hiking. He has hiked countless miles of trails across the United States as well as various sites in Europe and Canada. Perhaps one of the most rewarding hikes was crossing from the South Rim to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Michael also finds solace in long distance running. He regularly runs for physical and mental health and has participated in many races, primarily half marathons. He successfully completed the Music City Full Marathon in Nashville in April of 2019. 

Named Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, Teddy Abrams is the widely acclaimed Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra. In his ninth season as Music Director, Teddy launches the Orchestra’s groundbreaking Creators Corps–a fully-funded residency for three composers–and the Orchestra goes on tour across Kentucky in a first-of-its-kind multiyear funding commitment from the Kentucky State Legislature. 

Abrams’s rap-opera, The Greatest: Muhammad Ali, premiered in 2017, celebrating Louisville’s hometown hero with an all-star cast that included Rhiannon Giddens and Jubilant Sykes, as well as Jecorey “1200” Arthur, with whom he started the Louisville Orchestra Rap School. Abrams’s work with the Louisville Orchestra has been profiled on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, PBS’ Articulate, and the PBS NewsHour. 

Highlights of the 2022-2023 season include guest conducting engagements with the Cincinnati, Kansas City, Utah, Colorado, and Pacific Symphonies, a return to conduct the the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, and his debut with the Tiroler Symphonieorchester Innsbruck.

Abrams has been Music Director and Conductor of the Britt Festival Orchestra since 2013, where, in addition to an annual three-week festival of concerts, he has taken the orchestra across the region in the creation of new work—including Michael Gordon’s Natural History, which was premiered on the edge of Crater Lake National Park in partnership with the National Parks Service, and was the subject of the PBS documentary Symphony for Nature; and Pulitzer Prize-winning-composer Caroline Shaw’s Brush, an experiential work written to be performed in Summer 2021 on the Jacksonville Woodlands Trail system. 

Abrams recently collaborated with Jim James, vocalist and guitarist for My Morning Jacket, on the song cycle The Order of Nature, which they premiered with the Louisville Orchestra in 2018 and recorded on Decca Gold. They performed the work with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in 2019.In addition to The Order of Nature, Teddy and the Louisville Orchestra recorded All In in 2017 with vocalist Storm Large. Most recently, he released Space Variations, a collection of three new compositions for Universal Music Group’s 2022 World Sleep Day.

As a guest conductor, Abrams has worked with such distinguished ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Chicago, San Francisco, National, Houston, Pacific, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Vancouver, Colorado, Utah, and Phoenix Symphonies; Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; and the Sarasota and Florida Orchestras. Internationally, he has worked with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, and the Malaysian Philharmonic. He served as Assistant Conductor of the Detroit Symphony from 2012-2014. From 2008 to 2011, Abrams was the Conducting Fellow and Assistant Conductor of the New World Symphony.

Laura Rogers is a Hart County native who recalls first seeing Mammoth Cave as a young child on a class field trip. That awe-inspiring experience would lead to a lifetime love of exploring Kentucky’s natural wonders and beauty. Her favorite outdoor adventure is kayaking the Green River to admire views of the 300 Springs Waterfall.

Laura is a multimedia journalist who produces content for KET’s weeknight public affairs program, Kentucky Edition. She has previously worked in television news at WHAS in Louisville and WBKO in Bowling Green.

She studied broadcast news at Western Kentucky University, earning awards from the Associated Press and placing nationally for a Hearst Journalism Award.

Sarah Martin is the Assistant General Manager and Food & Beverage Manager at the Lodge of Mammoth Cave. She has worked for four different concessionaires during her thirty years of service at Mammoth Cave National Park. 

Sarah is also on the boards of the Caveland Marketing Association and the Edmonson County Tourism Commission. She serves as an executive team member for the tourism commission and also in her church, where she is active in a variety of activities. 

In her free time you will find Sarah baking, cooking and spending time with her family and friends. 

Brian grew up in Lexington, KY. In the 4 th grade his school did a field trip to Mammoth Cave and he was always in awe of their visit to Mammoth Cave National Park.

Brian attended Transylvania University and earned a business degree. After Transylvania, Brian received an MBA degree from the University of Kentucky in 1979.

Brian met his wife, Emily Aspley, at Transylvania University. They married in 1981 and spent their first two years working in Lexington. In 1983, Emily and Brian moved to Glasgow, Ky. –

Emily’s hometown. The move was to help Emily’s parents manage and run their theater operation. While managing the theater operations, Brian and Emily

became serial entrepreneurs. They purchased an office supply business, started four video stores, and developed four Subway Sandwich stores. Brian acquired his real estate license in 1991

and began a career in real estate selling residential, farm, lake, and commercial properties. Brian’s involvement in real estate allowed him to sell many of his business ownerships that he and his wife owned.

In 2000, Brian and Emily sold the theater business and purchased a restaurant in Cave City. His involvement in the

restaurant allowed Brian to become interested in tourism in the Mammoth Cave area. In 2003, Brian became the executive director of the Cave City Convention Center and Tourism

Bureau. His tourism position in Cave City reaffirmed his acquaintance with Mammoth Cave and Mammoth Cave

National Park. In 2006, Brian was invited to become one of the founding members of the Friends of Mammoth Cave National

Park.

In 2006, Brian was successful in an election to allow alcohol sales in Cave City, Ky. in restaurants. This move was done to

help increase tourism and promote economic development in the Mammoth Cave area. In 2012, Brian, working as a realtor for Coldwell Banker, listed

the Horse Cave attraction Kentucky Down Under. He spent a year marketing the property before selling it to an investment

group in 2013. After the sale Brian stayed on with Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo as Marketing Director.