02/21/2026
This is great news for our beloved Park, congratulations Charlie!
Friends of the Smokies is excited to learn Charles “Charlie” Sellars will continue serving as Superintendent of Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a permanent basis. Charlie has served as Acting Superintendent for more than a year and has helped guide the park with steady and consistent leadership. A native of Clyde, North Carolina, Sellars grew up on the eastern edge of the Smokies. He has more than four decades of experience working for the National Park Service and we are grateful he will continue leading the park into its next chapter.
Over the past decade, Charlie has served as Superintendent at multiple NPS sites, including Andersonville National Historic Site, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, and most recently New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, along with Gauley River National Recreation Area and Bluestone National Scenic River. He has also served in acting superintendent roles at Fort Donelson National Battlefield, Canaveral National Seashore, and Jimmy Carter National Historical Park.
Charlie began his federal career in 1985 as an engineering draftsman at the Blue Ridge Parkway, where he went on to serve in multiple positions. He served as chief of facility management at Bandelier National Monument, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, Outer Banks National Parks Group of North Carolina, and later as deputy chief of facility management at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Photos: Top-left, Charlie Sellars speaks at a Friends of the Smokies event in North Carolina in July 2025; top-right, portrait of Supt. Sellars by Smokies Life; bottom, Sellars addressing the crowd at our Greenbrier Barn Party fundraising event in May 2025.
