Meet Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful’s Team…

JUMP TO: STAFF | BOARD

OUR STAFF

Kathleen Gibi - Executive Director,
BOAT CAPTAIN

Kathleen has led Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful since January 2019 and served as the organization’s only boat captain until she expanded the fleet and staff in 2023. Since the inaugural boat launch in 2019, Kathleen has collaborated with an incredibly active board, invested partners, and passionate volunteers to remove over 600,000 lbs. of trash from the Tennessee River watershed. She also launched new infrastructure programs such as the largest network of electric litter skimmers on any river system in the world and art-wrapped cigarette receptacles that now total in more than 1,300 installed in all 7 states of the Tennessee River watershed. That includes Dollywood, which was the 1st theme park in the world to recycle the plastic from every cigarette butt the park collects through KTNRB’s program.

She served as communications specialist at the City of Knoxville for 15 years prior to that, serving under four mayors and specializing in parks and recreation as well as other public works departments. There, she worked with Living Lands & Waters to initiate the 2015 Tennessee River Tour, which eventually led to TVA and Keep Tennessee Beautiful forming Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful. She also served as the Let’s Move! Liaison for the City of Knoxville to the National League of Cities, collaborating with local government entities. This work lead to Knoxville/Knox County ranking no. 1 in the nation among Let’s Move! Cities, Towns, & Counties initiative and the National League of Cities naming Kathleen the ‘2015 Most Dedicated Staff Member’ award recipient.

Kathleen has also worked in marketing / communications consultation on the side, most notably serving 2009-2012 as media liaison for Jenny Berggren, lead singer from the 90s pop sensation, Ace of Base. Kathleen currently serves on the National Recreation and Parks Association Magazine board and serves on the board for the East Tennessee Childhood Obesity Coalition.

Press Release - 12.20.18

tatia harris - communications contributor

Tatia helps out with communications work for Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful, including writing media and promotions content, making social media posts, and any other communications needs. She currently serves in a full-time position as Chief Culture Officer at Metro RTA in Akron, Ohio. This was a recent move for Tatia, and her prior experience was working in the Mayor’s Office of Communications and in the Community Relations Dept. at the City of Knoxville, Tenn. There, she participated in any and every outdoor activity that she could along the Tennessee River, whether it be a dragon boat racing fundraiser or running a half-marathon along the river in the Knoxville Marathon. Before moving to Akron, Tatia participated in cleanup efforts with Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful. With her dad being a competitive swimmer, her first memory is being in the ocean with her father showing her how to swim. Tatia’s excited to do her part to raise awareness for the Tennessee River watershed!

Avery Kerley - Environmental infrastructure steward

Avery will help us implement our new Runoff River Guards program, which will include working with partners to install, maintain, and track that data for the debris collected in this new effort to prevent manmade debris from entering our waterways. Avery served in the United States Army where he had the role of Scout Team Leader and gained experience overseeing the maintenance of 12 eight-wheeled infantry vehicles and other equipment. Avery’s passion for protecting our waterways was sparked at a Third Creek cleanup in Knoxville that he did while working on a Political Science degree at the University of Tennessee. He was inspired to make sustainable solutions for our waterways his thesis project and that’s how he first connected with Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful. Avery’s looking forward to being responsible for the pilot year for our Runoff River Guards program that will hopefully grow into a wide infrastructure network that protects the Tennessee River from litter brought in by stormwater runoff!

Alex lopez - Accounting & Grants specialist

Alex has five years experience in accounting from accounts payable to accounts receivable and three years in bookkeeping. Growing up in the Ozarks, she loves the water and doing anything outside with her family. With that, she has seen firsthand how much help the rivers need and is excited to be a part of the KTNRB team, doing her part to help keep the rivers clean!

Coming position - education outreach Coordinator

Soon, Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful will hire its first Education Outreach Coordinator. Among other tasks, this position will oversee community outreach to create awareness around protecting our river system and develop youth education programs. The Education Outreach Coordinator will also be trained to operate KTNRB’s 26-foot work boats to drive volunteers to clean shorelines at river cleanups. Keep an eye out on LinkedIn to apply for this position.