Board Members

---

 ATLANTA, GA

Debra, who grew up in New Orleans, was exposed to fishing at an early age but it wasn’t until she took a class with Georgia Women Fly Fishers (GWFF) that she touched her first fly rod and became hooked. Debra is treasurer of GWFF and past membership chair of the Atlanta Fly Fishing Club (AFFC). She is also past Treasurer of the Southeastern Council. Debra learned she had achieved real success in fly fishing after compleing a day on the water without catching a fish, she remarked what a great day it was on the water.  The President of GWFF remarked that she had reached enlightenment.  Debra agrees.

Debra considers herself the luckiest bad fly fisherperson on the planet. Her luck includes big red fish and black drum in South Louisiana; tarpon and bones in Cuba and Belize; and Silver Salmon, grayling, trout, dolly varden, arctic char in Alaska. One of the reasons Debra loves fishing is because fish don’t live in ugly places. She enjoys traveling to add species to her catch list.

Debra believes that a regional organization like the Southeastern Council can provide anglers in big cities and small towns with a variety of opportunities and hopes to help develop these opportunities in the Southeast. 

 LEXINGTON, NC

Anthony served as the Fly Fishers International-Southeastern Council President from 2009-2012.  In the past he has served the FFF (now FFI)-SEC on the board of directors, as show fly tying chairman, program show director and festival show chairman.  Anthony has taught many fly tying seminars and demonstrated fly tying at many fly fishing shows across the US and Canada.  He is a professional speaker, tier and fly tying instructor. He has served as president, vice-president, fly tying instructor, Boy Scouts Merit Badge Coordinator and program chairman for his home fly fishing club, the Nat Greene Fly Fishers (TU/FFF affiliate) in Greensboro, NC. 

Anthony has been nationally recognized for his spun deer-hair bass flies, smallmouth bass nymphs (the Hellcraw), saltwater streamers and especially his unique soft-bodied foam poppers, divers and sliders. In 2004 he was a featured fly tier on the Outdoor Life Network’s Fly Fish TV Magazine television program.  Fly Tyer Magazine has published five of Anthony’s tying articles on his unique flies, including the Hipps Soft-Bodied popper line of flies.   Anthony is proud to be a contributing author for Bob Clouser’s outstanding book, “Fly Fishing for Smallmouth in Rivers and Streams”.  In July 2016 Anthony was a co-host, with the legendary Bill Spicer, of “The New Fly Fisher TV Magazine” fly fishing video, “Fly Fishing for Smallmouth Bass at Waterfalls Lodge” in Spanish, Ontario.

CUMMING, GA

 I started fly fishing at age 12 and began tying by repairing flies and popping bugs at age 14. There was very little information available growing up in North Carolina. My first “Kit” was a Hank Roberts Fly Tying Kit with every color feather one could imagine except for those you needed. The vise was a stamped metal affair with a butterfly nut to secure the hook.

I'm a Life Member of FFI, current member of the FFI-FTG and on the Board of Governors for the FTG.  Past president of the Atlanta Fly Fishing Club and past president of the Southeastern Council Federation of Fly Fishers.  Past member Board of Directors for Southeastern Council FFI, past Vice Chair Board of Governors for the FFI FTG, and on the Board of Directors for Project Healing Waters – Atlanta.  I recently retired as the project lead for Fly Tying to our wounded vets and have worked on improving, modifying and adding tools to the Evergreen Hand for use by combat wounded vets. I am a current Georgia representative on the Board of Directors for the Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians in Bryson City, North Carolina.

I have been a Demonstration Tyer at regional, national FFI and other events. I teach fly tying on a regular basis.

 ROME, GA 

Cathy Valancius is a fly angler living in Rome, Georgia.  At the beginning of the Covid pandemic, like many, she bought a fly rod and started teaching herself to fish.  Over the past few years she has found a genuine passion for fly fishing, fly tying and stream conservation. She embraces the "All Fish, All Waters" motto of FFi, as you will often find her on some trickle of water pulling out native Georgia bass, sunfish, or brookies with dry flies.

Currently, she is treasurer of  the Georgia Council of Trout Unlimited, treasurer of the Coosa Valley Chapter of TU and a citizen scientist for Science on the Fly.  

Linda Vance discovered fly fishing while doing fish physiology coursework for her Ph.D in Conservation Biology at UC Davis. She is still not quite sure that her colleagues were really "sampling fish populations and health" with fly rods, as they claimed, but she decided not to challenge them, and has kept a fly rod handy ever since. Prior to her retirement in 2022, she led a comprehensive assessment and monitoring group at the University of Montana, evaluating the aquatic integrity of federally-managed streams, rivers, wetlands and uplands across the Western U..S.  If you mention an obscure trout stream in a forsaken corner of northern Nevada or southern Wyoming, she has probably "sampled" it. Since moving to North Carolina in 2020, she has been leaving her water quality meters, IPad and tape measures at home, exploring the waters of the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee with great enthusiasm but less scientific rigor.  Being the SEC's Women Connect Liaison allows her to extend her commitment to gender inclusiveness in aquatic science and resource protection by getting women involved with water and fishing. 

It was an issue of Fly Fisherman magazine, back in 1978 that first got Kathleen interested in our noble endeavor. The gorgeous cover shot of an angler standing hip-deep in a stream among colorful autumn leaves pulled her into the publication to find out more. After a few casting and fly tying lessons, she was soon following in the footsteps of that angler, as well as the writers in that issue – Art Flick, Ernie Schwiebert, and John Merwin, among others – pursuing the elusive trout. Her job took her to various parts of the country, and she was able to fish the waters in California, Oregon, Montana, Maine, and Virginia, as well as her native Texas. 

Sadly, Kathleen’s career in transportation drew her to focus more and more time dealing with engineers, and less on communing with fish. Yet, much of that career dealt with conservation-related matters: protecting waterways and natural habitat in highway construction areas, promoting the use of “critter crossings” to allow

wildlife migration to flow over or under highways, the use of alternate transportation fuels, and recycling of motor oil, tires, and batteries. In the mid-1980s, she chaired a newly formed Environment Section of the Public Relations Society of America, the largest professional communication association in the world. 

After retiring from the Federal Highway Administration, Kathleen moved to North Carolina to work on a writing project. Here, Kathleen’s love of flyfishing has come back to life and she found an unanticipated benefit of the move: the Old North State’s many hidden mountain streams and rivers...and the fish that live there. 

Just for fun, Kathleen located and purchased a copy of that now almost fifty-year-old issue of Fly Fisherman magazine. The cover is as beautiful as ever, but inside was an ironic twist: One of the articles outlined an effort to defeat a huge dam project along Maine’s St. John River. Conservationists across the country – doubtless including FFI members -- joined that fight to stop the project and protect the river’s native trout

habitat. Ironic because today, Kathleen finds herself a part of FFI’s Conservation

Committee, the group that frequently joins with other concerned outdoors

organizations to do battle against similar projects in order to protect rivers, lakes

and streams. As they say, what goes around comes around.

An avid fisherman since childhood, Paul began tying flies when he was about 10, but he didn't start fishing with them until many years later.  Today, he ties flies from a size 24 midge pupa for the tailwaters, to a size 2 Alaskabou for Alaskan salmon, and everything in between.  Raised on the traditional patterns espoused by Ray Bergman, though, his passion is for the traditional Catskill dries, classic wets, and the feather wing streamers that graced the fly boxes of fishermen in the 1950's and '60's.  Whatever he happens to be tying, though, Paul will always be happy to digress into his favorite Appalachian or Southern tailwater patterns.

Paul is a lifetime member of FFi, and a member of the FFi Fly Tying Group.  He gives frequent fly tying demonstrations for various local organizations, and is often seen at regional fly fishing shows promoting youth fly tying, and membership in the FFi.

CLEVELAND, TN

 Brian started fishing with his father at fifteen and has been an avid angler ever since. They started the Lee U. Anglers program at Lee University and shortly thereafter earned their CI certifications together.  From there, Brian went on to earn his MCI certification in 2017 after four years of practice and study of all aspects of angling from tying Bimini knots with 30 lb. fluorocarbon to learning the crab stroke in a drift boat. After "earning the patch," Brian became an associate editor for the Loop Journal for FFI and eventually went on to helm the publication as editor-in-chief. During this time, he was also published in American Angler Magazine as well as multiple peer-reviewed journals. 

After three years with the Loop, Brian resigned his position to focus full-time on finishing his graduate work at the University of Tennessee. After successfully defending his dissertation in 2023, Brian wanted to get back to serving the organization he loved and joined the FFI SEC Board at the invitation of Debra Pauli. He is passionate about spreading the lore and love of this great pastime to future anglers and conservationists and believes FFI has a central role to play in the future of angling. In terms of fishing preference, Brian is an unapologetic "streamer junkie," and you'll often find him in the back of the boat slamming banks with a sink line. When the streamer bite is clearly not on, he will settle for Carp or Bass on-the-fly. 

ORIENTAL, NC  

Bobby began fishing, in his youth, in eastern Tennessee at his grandmother’s farm pond with his dad. He grew up wading creeks, streams, and river for whatever was available.  Initially he wasn’t interested in fly fishing. Later, he began to appreciate the grace and beauty of the cast and the serene settings of the fishing locations. Today he is a fishing guide that fishes locally in the salt waters around Oriental North Carolina and travels to various locations, both freshwater and salt, wherever his fly rod takes him.

CULLMAN, AL

 Jeff was born and raised in North Alabama and has been fly fishing since 1978. He resides in Cullman, Alabama.

After 43 years of fly fishing, he still learns something new each trip to the water. 

A trained software engineer, who often states he works to buy fly rods. Most of his time is spent either at the fly bench or on the water. 

He enjoys fly tying and is a member of the FFI fly tying group. After several years as a member of FFI, he decided he wanted to take on more to further the sport of fly fishing and help grow the FFI in the Southeast. 

He’s a beekeeper, published author, and an avid observer of nature.

HUNTSVILLE, AL

 Ralph Shuey is a 30+ year member of Fly Fishers International and has been active in both the Southeastern and the Southern Councils and chapters (TVFF & NAFF), Administrator for the Classic Fly Rod Forum, founder of the Bamboo Bash (20+ years), active supporter of Casting for Recovery and Veterans activities.  Ralphs has fifty plus years of international fishing experience in both salt and freshwater fisheries and is a frequent supporter of fly tying events. Ralph has fished all over the world including the US, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He is a retired Rocket Scientist with experience in multi-million dollar programs, conference organization, international program cooperation, and domestic inter-personal as well as international skills.  Ralph’s  wife is also an experienced fly fisher and contributor to women’s activity in the sport.  As an ordained clergy person she has a deep interest in the spiritual aspects of the craft and its potential for healing.  They both share an enthusiasm for involving the young in this potentially life-long endeavor.