New officers were elected at the January 17 meeting
of the Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC) at state forestry headquarters in
Montgomery. The board selected Katrenia
Pruitt Kier of Huntsville as new Chair, and Robert N. Turner of Sulligent as
Vice-Chair. Both Kier and Turner have served on the Commission since February 2016.
With over
30 years of professional experience in business management, corporate training,
and customer service, Katrenia Kier is the owner of Kier Realestate, LLC, a real estate brokerage firm in Huntsville. Her
prior corporate experience includes human resource and information management
positions in the defense industry at McDonnell Douglas and Boeing Corporation. Currently
an officer with the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB), she
also serves as minister and youth committee coordinator for the Greater
Huntsville Interdenominational Ministerial Fellowship. She earned a Bachelor of
Science in Psychology from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and
received a Business Management Certificate from the University of Alabama at
Huntsville as well.
Kier previously
served six years on the State Forester’s Outreach Advisory Council for
underserved and minority landowners. In addition to completing master forester
classes and training on best management practices for forestry, she has also attended
forest industry conferences and coordinated workshops for North Alabama landowners,
introducing them to services offered by the Forestry Commission.
After a
45-year career in the field of education, Robert Turner now stays busy with
cattle and farming in Lamar County. Upon completion of a Bachelor of Art degree
in Social Studies at Mississippi Industrial College, he attended Rust College, University
of Alabama, University of Mississippi, and Mississippi State University,
receiving a master’s degree in Administration in 1984. Over the years, he served
as teacher, coach, assistant principal, and principal at Caledonia High School
in Shugualak, Mississippi. He then worked as Director of Transportation &
Maintenance for the Lowndes County (Mississippi) School District and later in
Natchez, Mississippi, before returning to Alabama where he spent several years
in the same position in Lamar County prior to his retirement in 2011.
Turner’s
organizational memberships have included the State Forester’s Outreach Advisory
Council for underserved and minority landowners, Executive Committee of the
Alabama TREASURE Forest Association, and chairman of LRLEAN (Limited Resource Landowner Education &
Assistance Network) an association of African American landowners organized
to promote increased sustainable forestry management/certification in the Black
Belt region of Alabama by working with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative/Tree
Farm program. This organization has also connected many Black landowners
to USDA financial assistance programs.
Other members of the AFC Board of Commissioners
include immediate past Chairman Jane T. Russell of Lapine; Jerry M. Dwyer of
Auburn; Stephen W. May, III of Sawyerville; Dr. Bill Sudduth of Tuscaloosa; and
Joseph H. Twardy of Auburn. This seven-member board, appointed by the Governor
and approved by the State Senate, is responsible for setting policy for the Alabama
Forestry Commission,
the state agency charged with protecting and sustaining Alabama’s forest
resources. To learn more about the AFC, visit
www.forestry.alabama.gov.