About the Author
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After growing up in Troy, Alabama, Anne Mitchell Whisnant received her B.A. in history from Birmingham-Southern College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at UNC, she specialized in the history of the American South.
From 1997-99 she taught U.S. and North Carolina history at UNC before moving into a career in academic administration. From 2002 to 2006 she worked at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, where she developed and promoted an assortment of humanities programs. In 2006, she became Director of Research, Communications, and Programs for the Office of Faculty Governance at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also holds a faculty appointment as Adjunct Assistant Professor of History at Carolina, teaching North Carolina history and public history courses.
Anne and her husband David Whisnant do contract research for the National Park Service through their consulting firm, Primary Source History Services.
Anne's study of the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway began in 1991, spurred by a love of the mountains nurtured in seven summers spent during her youth at Lake Junaluska United Methodist Assembly in western North Carolina.
Super-Scenic Motorway is the first history of the Parkway ever to be fully grounded both in the relevant scholarly literature and in thorough research in the extensive archival record of the road’s development.
Anne has also published two articles and delivered numerous public talks on the Parkway’s history, and has served as a consultant to the National Park Service. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for both the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and Blue Ridge Parkway 75, Inc., a nonprofit organization that is planning the celebration for the Parkway's 75th anniversary in 2010.
She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with her husband and two sons.