Director of the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center in Berea

• B.A. Biology / Physical Education, Berea College
• M.A. Physical Education, University of Tennessee
• Ph.D. Appalachian Studies, University of Massachusetts

Bill Best began his work in Appalachian Studies at Berea College, where he graduated in 1959 and later returned as a teacher from 1962 until his retirement in 2002.  He is the director of the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center, which focuses on maintaining the genetic heritage of the vegetables and fruits of our ancestors.  He is also the first person to earn a Ph.D. in Appalachian Studies.  A life-long farmer and gardener, Bill Best serves as a speaker for various gardening and food groups throughout the country.

Why Appalachian Studies?
“Many of the native scholars who became involved with the budding Appalachian Studies movement in the late ’60s and ’70s were uncomfortable using first-person pronouns.  It concerned me that so many people used the third person when speaking about their Appalachian experiences.  Students taught in the first generation of mission schools often became the educational leaders in their own communities. They were children of Appalachia and step-children of middle-class America—somewhat alienated but with a foot still in the door of their own culture.  Students in subsequent generations were often taught to reject family pathways and more completely embrace generic values, thus becoming strangers at home—and seeing themselves in third person.

There were also attempts at sub-branching Appalachian Studies in Sociology, and my degree was a response to that, an effort to legitimize the field.  And to some extent, I think we’ve had some success with that.  One of the great successes of the Appalachian Studies movement is that so many now speak very affirmatively in the first person.”