Dave Pruett is a long-term resident of the Shenandoah Valley who, following his semi-retirement in 2012, section-hiked the entire AT through the Virginias over nine summers, completing it in 2023 at age seventy-five. Pruett previously worked in the aerospace industry at NASA Langley Research Center and taught mathematics and computational science at Virginia Commonwealth University, the College of William and Mary, and James Madison University. His first book,
Reason and Wonder received a Choice Award from the American Library Association.
Mills Kelly is a Professor of History at George Mason University and Senior Scholar at the award-winning Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media.