New Leadership and Engagement at University of Lynchburg's Claytor Nature Center

University of Lynchburg, March 9th, 2026

By Lorraine Upton  

Bedford, VA - University of Lynchburg’s new director of the Claytor Nature Center, Lindsay Tomlinson, has been working to increase the amount of engagement for such a “hidden gem”. 

The Claytor Nature Center is 491-acres of donated land meant for the University to use for environmental education and research located in Bedford County. 

Mountain View from the Cloverleaf Farmhouse. Photo by Lorraine Upton.

Tomlinson expresses her goal of wanting “students to think back to Claytor being a piece of their college experience. I know environmental studies and outdoor exploration isn’t for everybody, but for those that do enjoy those things, they should definitely come on out here and take advantage of what we have to offer,”

Since starting work back in June of 2025, Tomlinson has made great efforts to gain attention from both University of Lynchburg students and students from surrounding schools. 

“I  was able to do a ton of field trips in the fall for homeschool, private schools, and public schools. The University has continued to send out students, and we’ve had some response from some other universities as well,” says Tomlinson.  

View of the Bridge crossing Big Otter River. Photo by Lorraine Upton.

Tomlinson has also worked in acquiring help, such as Claire Stevens ‘28 who will be working as a student employee at the facility. 

“My involvement at Claytor is going to be a lot of various different things, but my main goal is to gain some outdoor education experience,” says Stevens. 

Another example is Alyssa Golladay 22’, a Lynchburg alumni and new member of the Claytor advisory board.

“It’s a three-year commitment. Right now, it's more how do we bring people out to Claytor and task management? How do we upkeep things, or what can we do to incentivize people?” asks Golladay. 

View of a hiking trail open to the public at Claytor. Photo by Lorraine Upton.

Claytor Nature Center has many events planned for the spring season and encourages all students to join! Learn more about Claytor and their events from their website, social media pages or newsletter. 

Want to hear more? Listen to this audio story about Claytor!