{"id":2164,"date":"2026-05-06T09:54:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/tn\/?page_id=2164"},"modified":"2026-05-07T11:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T16:34:08","slug":"officers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/tn\/about-us\/officers\/","title":{"rendered":"Officers"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n

President:<\/h3>\n

Shannon Murphy-Harty<\/h2>\n

Email: Shannon@conservationfisheries.org<\/p>\n

Conservation Fisheries, Inc.<\/p>\n

3424 Division Street<\/p>\n

Knoxville, TN 37919<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shannon Murphy-Harty is a Conservation Biologist and Volunteer Coordinator at Conservation Fisheries, Inc where she is the Species Lead for several endangered species of non-game fishes. She has been involved with TNAFS since 2017 when she started attending meetings as an undergraduate at Tennessee Tech. There, Shannon was active in the student sub-unit, first as the Undergraduate Representative, then the President. Over the last several years, she has served as the Website Chair for TNAFS, and as Local Arrangements Chair when our chapter hosted SDAFS in 2024. Shannon has a hard time picking a favorite fish, but it’s usually bouncing back and forth between Duskytail Darters, Boulder Darters, and Barrens Topminnows.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n

President-Elect<\/h3>\n

Phillip Parsley<\/h2>\n

Email: Phillip.m.parsley@tn.gov<\/p>\n

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency<\/p>\n

236 Jones Mill Rd<\/p>\n

LaVergne, TN 37086<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Phillip Parsley is a reservoir fisheries manager for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency in Middle Tennessee, focusing primarily on sportfish management and monitoring as well as habitat enhancement.\u00a0 He also assists hatchery crews collect broodfish, such as sauger and striped bass, for spawning. Prior to his current position, he worked in Northeast Utah with Colorado River Cutthroat Trout as well as in Florida on the FWC Long-Term Monitoring crew and St. Johns River Springs Project. He has been involved in TNAFS since joining TWRA in 2020, serving on the finance committee for the 2024 SDAFS meeting and as the TNAFS Website Chair in 2025.\u00a0 His favorite fish to work with are Smallmouth Bass, otherwise his favorite fish is anything he can chase with a fly rod.\u00a0 Phillip enjoys the camaraderie and enthusiasm of TNAFS members and is always impressed hearing about the great work fellow fish-heads are doing in Tennessee and beyond.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n

Past-President<\/h3>\n

Shawna Fix<\/h2>\n

Email: shawna@southeastaquatics.net<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership<\/p>\n

Murfreesboro, TN 37128<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shawna Fix is the Aquatic Connectivity Teams Facilitator at SARP (Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership). She works with partners across the Southeast to inventory, prioritize, and replace barriers for aquatic organism passage. Her background is in threatened and endangered freshwater fish and has a passion for conservation. Shawna was first involved in TNAFS in 2016 when she became the social media chair. She was elected in 2018 as the treasurer-secretary and re-elected for a second term in 2021. Her favorite fish is the Laurel Dace, a federally endangered minnow only found in Tennessee! Shawna’s favorite part about working with TNAFS is mentoring students as they are the next generation of fisheries biologists and conservationists.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Treasurer<\/h3>\n

Ashely Padgett<\/h2>\n

Email: Ashley.n.padgett@tn.gov<\/p>\n

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency<\/p>\n

545 Priddy Ln<\/p>\n

Birchwood, TN 37308<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ashley is an Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) Manager with Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. She primarily works alongside the reservoir crew in region 3 but also monitors invasive carp movement in the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers across the state. She has been involved with TNAFS since 2019, when she started attending meetings as a graduate student at Tennessee Tech; Ashley was elected as treasurer in 2026. Her graduate work focused on dietary overlaps between invasive carp and native Gizzard Shad. Currently, Ashley also monitors the spread of invasive Alabama Bass genetics in region 3 Tennessee River reservoirs. Her favorite fish is a Smallmouth Bass, which can potentially be extirpated where Alabama Bass are introduced. Ashley is always excited and interested in the fisheries work being done across the state and believes that networking opportunities through AFS meetings have gotten her to where she is now!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Secretary:<\/h3>\n

Aaron Burch<\/h2>\n

Email: Alburch123@gmail.com<\/p>\n

Winchester, TN 37398<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Aaron Burch is a fisheries technician for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. He currently works at the warmwater fish hatchery located in Normandy Tennessee. He is passionate about enhancing Tennessee fisheries for future generations and encouraging today\u2019s youth to spend more time outdoors. Aaron first became involved with AFS at Tennessee Tech, where he received a bachelor\u2019s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries. Narrowing down a favorite fish is difficult for Aaron, but a blacknose crappie\u2014whether in a hauling truck or a frying pan\u2014is hard to beat. What he loves most about TNAFS is the opportunity to witness the reconnecting, smiling faces of past students, work colleagues, and old \u201cfish-head\u201d friends when everyone gathers together.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  President: Shannon Murphy-Harty Email: Shannon@conservationfisheries.org Conservation Fisheries, Inc. 3424 Division Street Knoxville, TN 37919   Shannon Murphy-Harty is a Conservation Biologist and Volunteer Coordinator at Conservation Fisheries, Inc where she is the Species Lead for several endangered species of non-game fishes. She has been involved with TNAFS since 2017 when she started attending meetings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":867,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2164","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd","first-child","last-child"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/tn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/tn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/tn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/tn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/867"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/tn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2164"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/tn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2192,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/tn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2164\/revisions\/2192"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/tn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/tn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}