Joella Bates Bio - December 14, 2013

Joella Bates is a Wildlife professional and dedicated outdoors participant. She has
worked as a naturalist, wildlife officer, fisheries manager, and environmental scientist
prior to becoming an outdoors promoter. She can do it all: hunt, fish, shoot any type of
weapon with considerable skill. Joella shoots compound bows, crossbows, recurve
bows and longbows. She is also a writer, speaker, instructor, coach, sales person, and
motivator drawing many persons into outdoor adventures.
She was honored as a 2013 Kentucky Colonel, a 2011 inductee into the Legends of the
Outdoors National Hall of Fame and a 2005 inductee into the Outdoor Channels Circle
of Honor. In 2004, Joella was selected as the Event Coordinator for the Jack Daniels
Field and Stream Magazines Total Outdoorsman Challenge. Joella coordinates many
outfitted hunts for groups. She recently founded Operation Outdoor Outreach that
provides programs and fundraising tools for organizations with outdoor programs
including but not limited to: the Southern Sportsmen Foundation, Shooting for
Womens Alliance, Hope for Heroes, and Camp Cuervo Archery Club.
Joella does outreach programs that connect youth, women, and families with the
outdoor world through archery and other outdoor programs. Joella will be the camp
director and archery instructor for Fair Game Outfitters Outdoor Adventure in North
Carolina, Lindseys Retreat in Heber Springs, AR, and Archery/Fly Fishing Retreat with
Outdoor Legacy in Heber Springs, AR. Joella is the Archery Director of the Shooting
for Women Alliance. Joella is a certified BAI and BAIT (Basic Archery Instructor
Trainer) for the National Archery in the Schools Program and Centershot Ministry.
Joella teaches private and group archery lessons and conducts Archery Shoot Camps
with Elementary, Middle and High Schools as well as College Archery Clinics.
After attending the University of Tennessee at Martin on a rifle scholarship and earning
a B.S. in Natural Resources Management, she added a M.S. in Biology with emphasis
in Fisheries Management from Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, TN. In 1996,
Joella became an inductee into the UTM Athletic Hall of Fame for the sport of rifle.
In 1989, Joella took up archery for bowhunting; she has taken 67 different species of
animals with her bows including becoming the first woman bow hunter to harvest a
Cape buffalo in 2001; a Wild Turkey Grand Slam in 2004; and the Big 5 (lioness,
elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard and green hunted a white rhinoceros) in 2009. She is
the first bow hunter to take the Big 5 of Africa in a single safari in < 30 days.
Joella has claimed five 3-D Archery World Championship Titles four as a Woman Pro
and has earned over $100,000 in tournaments along with numerous national, regional,
state, and local titles until an injury in 2003 sidelined her from competition. Watch out,
Joella is back in full swing and better than ever.