A team of Great Smoky Mountains National Park employees was recently awarded the 2023 Excellence in Education Award at a National Park Service awards ceremony in Washington D.C. Many of the agency’s top awards were presented at the 2023 National Service Awards ceremony. 

A National Park Service ranger who has focused on the scientific and educational significance of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for more than 20 years earned national praise in this year’s Public Lands Alliance awards ceremony, held Feb. 27 in Denver, Colorado.

Susan Sachs, education branch chief for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, received the 2019 PLA Agency Leadership Award for cultivating and leading partnerships, the result of a nomination from the Great Smoky Mountains Association.