AMS LEADERSHIP Meet the people who keep AMS moving.AMS is run by volunteers: people who organize events, answer questions, manage the organization, lead walks, teach what they know, and keep showing up. BOARD OF DIRECTORS The people handling the organizational side of AMS.AMS members elect the board to guide the society, manage its core responsibilities, and help turn ideas into programs that can actually happen. 
PRESIDENT Anthoni GoodmanAnthoni founded AMS after moving to Alabama and discovering a fungal landscape very different from the deserts and mountains of Arizona where he first became involved with mushroom clubs. His interests span mushroom identification, photography, mycophagy, microscopy, species documentation and mapping, and the particular satisfaction of finding something unusual, pristine, or completely unexpected. 
VICE PRESIDENT Spencer CrowleySpencer grew up in Central Alabama surrounded by forest and began focusing seriously on mycology in 2017. He now lives in Anniston and helps anchor AMS activity in east-central Alabama. His strongest interest is in foraged food: finding edible fungi, understanding them well, and sharing practical preparation and cooking techniques with other people. He also enjoys helping newer mushroom hunters build the identification skills and confidence needed to explore wild foods for themselves. 
TREASURER Leigh ManessLeigh helps manage the financial side of AMS while also helping bring the society's field programming into North Alabama. As a board member and local foray leader, she helps connect the administrative work of keeping AMS running with the part people actually came for: getting outside together and finding mushrooms. 
SECRETARY Cassie PughCassie is a lifelong outdoorswoman whose interest in fungi accelerated after finding morels on her family land in 2020 and joining AMS. She spends much of her time outdoors studying and photographing fungi, plants, and wildlife, and particularly enjoys helping children discover just how many questions a mushroom can generate. 
FORAY LEADERS The people waiting for you at the trailhead.A foray leader does not need to know the name of every mushroom in the woods. Their job is to help the group explore safely, notice more, use good identification resources, and learn together. SOUTH ALABAMA Baldwin County
Kat Williams
A lifelong nature enthusiast, writer, poet, hiker, and forager whose interests in fungi and botany grew naturally from a life spent exploring outdoors. 
Tammy Havel Kinney
A longtime Gulf Coast resident whose interest grew from photographing mushrooms into learning, exploring, and sharing fungi with other people. EAST-CENTRAL ALABAMA Calhoun County
Spencer Crowley
Based in Anniston, Spencer especially enjoys foraging edible mushrooms and showing people how to prepare and use what they find in the kitchen. NORTH-CENTRAL ALABAMA Cullman County
Cassie Pugh
Cassie leads the regular Cullman County foray and especially enjoys helping beginners and young naturalists learn how to look closely. CENTRAL ALABAMA Jefferson & Shelby Counties
Anthoni Goodman
Anthoni leads Birmingham-area forays with broad interests in identification, edible fungi, unusual species, photography, microscopy, and documenting Alabama's fungal diversity. NORTH ALABAMA Madison County
Leigh Maness
Leigh helps anchor AMS activity in Madison County and provides a regular local point of connection for mushroom people in North Alabama. EAST-CENTRAL ALABAMA Tallapoosa County
Becca Mahoney
Becca grew up hunting, fishing, and foraging in Central Alabama and especially enjoys combining wild foods, cooking, mushroom discovery, and the people who come out to learn together. SPECIAL EVENTS & COLLABORATORS Some leaders don't belong to just one county.Large seasonal forays, wild-food programming, classes, and special projects often bring in experienced leaders and collaborators from across the state. 
FOUNDING MEMBER · FORAY LEADER Tim PfitzerTim's long-running interest in mushrooms and wild foods has made him a major part of AMS's seasonal programming, including the annual Morel Foray and other classes and events. 
EDUCATOR · COLLABORATOR Jesse AkozbekJesse is a passionate wild-food educator and the person behind Feral Foraging. AMS has collaborated with him on classes and field experiences that connect mushrooms with the wider world of Southeastern foraging. PEOPLE WHO BUILT AMS Leadership changes. The work stays with us.AMS exists in its current form because different people have taken responsibility for it at different stages. Some contributions fundamentally changed what the society was capable of doing. 
PAST PRESIDENT Alisha MillicanAlisha's leadership marked an important period of growth for AMS. She helped move the society beyond simply bringing mushroom enthusiasts together and pushed its educational, scientific, and citizen-science work substantially forward. Her emphasis on careful identification, vouchering, herbarium collections, fungal diversity, and stewardship helped build a stronger scientific side of the organization. She also connected AMS more closely with the broader mycological community through her work with the North American Mycological Association, the Fungal Diversity Survey, and the University of West Alabama Herbarium. Many of the society's most ambitious efforts in documentation, collections, and citizen science advanced significantly under her leadership. The organization that followed was stronger because of the time, expertise, and energy she put into it.
Anthoni Goodman
Founded AMS to create an educational and social mushroom community in Alabama and establish a place where people could learn fungi together in the field.
Tim Pfitzer
Helped establish AMS and has remained central to its major seasonal forays, wild-food education, and hands-on programming. YOU DON'T HAVE TO START WITH A TITLE Help with one thing.Most organizations do not find new leaders by posting an opening for “new leader.” They start with someone who keeps showing up, learns the ropes, and agrees to take responsibility for one useful piece of the work. |
