Whats better than an outdoors women who can bend a bow, nail a fish, wallop a turkey and teach a how-to archery class? No much. ODU is honored to have Joella Bates as a contributor and we all look forward her outdoor insights and knowledge.
“Joella Bates can do it all: hunt, fish, shoot any type of weapon with considerable skill. Joella shoots compound bows, crossbows, recurve bows and longbows. Joella has claimed nine 3-D Archery World Championship Titles – four as a Woman Pro and has earned over $100,000 in tournaments along with many national, regional, state and local titles. Just this year, she became the Female Traditional Class winner at the IBO Indoor World; the Traditional Society World events; IBO Winter and Spring Nationals; 3rd leg of National Triple Crown; IBO Traditional World Championship and the IBO World Championship in the Female Bowhunter Class. All total, I had 11 of 15 first place finishes with recurve barebow. Joella competed in Women’s Barebow for TEAM USA at the World Archery 3-D Championship in Robion France in September 2017.
In 1989, Joella took up archery for bowhunting, since then she has taken 80 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; the African Big 5 (lioness, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard and green hunted a white rhinoceros) in 2009; first bow hunter male or female to take the Big 5 of Africa in a single safari (< 30 days).
Joella is a wildlife professional and dedicated outdoors participant and promoter. She has worked as a naturalist, TWRA wildlife officer, fisheries manager, environmental scientist, professional archer, outdoors promoter, freelance writer, speaker, archery coach/trainer, sales associate with TKL Outdoors and Representative/Trainer with Global Archery. 
Joella was the State Coordinator for the S3DA (Scholastic 3-D Archery) program in Tennessee and Arkansas. Since July of 2015, she has been the National Training Specialist for the S3DA Program; traveling around the country training both basic and advanced (trainers of basic instructors) instructors. She has trained about 150 Basic and Advanced instructors since May, 2015. The S3DA program is in 38 states and presented over $300,000 in college scholarships to archers competing at regional, state and national championships in 2015 and over $1 million in scholarships from Bethel University in 2016. On Feb. 13th, 2017, Joella became the Assistant Archery Coach for Bethel University where she will focus on recruitment and skills development for the team.
Joella owns JOCAMPS and Operation Outdoor Outreach in which she does outreach programs, Archery Boot Camps and retreats that connect youth, women and families with the outdoor world through archery and other outdoor programs. Joella is a certified BAI and BAIT for NASP and Centershot; a basic and advanced instructor for S3DA; a USA Archery NAA Level 1 and 2 Instructor, Level 2 Instructor Trainer and Level 3 NTS Coach with Mental Management 101 Certification. Additionally, she is a Hunter/Bowhunter Education and Handgun Instructor. Joella teaches private and group archery lessons and conducts Archery Shoot Camps with Elem., Middle and High Schools as well as College Archery Clinics. Joella conducts motivational programs: “Be A Winner,” “Putting Life on Target,” “DREAMS” and “No Excuses – No Limits.” She uses archery as a demonstration tool and follows the program with an opportunity to shoot bows and arrows with her.
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.
Joella currently writes as a freelancer for magazines (Hey Y’all, Huntress Life, BLAZE, RACK and Buckmasters’), newspapers (New Democrat) and websites (Operationoo.com). Joella is very active on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. She is a member of POMA and SEOPA.
She has been honored as a Kentucky Colonel, inductee to the Legends of the Outdoors National Hall of Fame and a 2005 inductee into the Outdoor Channel’s Circle of Honor. 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, Outdoor Women Unlimited, Shooting for Women’s Alliance, Camp Cuervo Archery Club and the Outdoor Dream Foundation.
Joella has represented many manufacturers in the outdoor industry over the last 22 years including these bow manufacturers: Bear, Jennings, Hoyt, Darton, Bow Tech, Ten Point Crossbows, St. Joe River Bows, Jeffery, C.D. Archery, Global Archery, Black Eagle Arrows, Cottonwood Outdoors, Walk On Targets, Yost Tabs, 60X Custom Strings, Top Hat Points. She also has worked with CLO2 Systems, Aerodynamic Solutions, TKL Outdoors, Bodoodle, Bullseye Archery, Toxonic, SureLoc, Scott Archery, Fletcher Archery, Zenith Archery, Carbon Express, Easton Archery, Gold Tip Arrows, Rhino Labs, Nikon, Foxy Huntress, Prois, Diva Outfitters and many others.”