Gretchen McElhaney — this year’s chairwoman of the National Park Service — hails from Columbia University, once led a restoration of the University of Maryland Maroon and Gold, and is not merely an academic on record praising the NPS’ work.
McElhaney, a centrist Democrat who has taken center stage on a range of environmental issues, is also the former chairwoman of National Parks Conversation, the newly formed nonprofit charged with analyzing and endorsing park renovation and expansion, including the California Coastal Trail and scenic overlook renovations at Patuxent River.
In her speech at last week’s opening of the Lewis House, a renovated civil war hotel in Fredericksburg, Virginia, McElhaney concluded by stating with enthusiasm: “We as a nation have a rare opportunity to reflect on our national parks and particularly our Washington area. Here in the vicinity of the beautiful Lee-Jackson battlefield, we can contemplate the tremendous legacy our nation’s men and women have left, and can advocate that we do the same as a nation.”
Although no women have served as NPS chairs, women — including McElhaney — have contributed to the agency’s history. Their leadership of 21st century actions at any size scale will be equally critical.
One woman has already made a strong name for herself in the D.C. transportation world — one that will allow her to kick off her shoes when she sits in the chairmanship of NPS — 27-year-old Tatiana Calderon, the first female naturalist aboard the National Geographic Explorer to appear on the cover of National Geographic. Calderon’s provocative and inspiring story has made her the subject of honors in urban policy, a recent New York Times “Women in the World” article and a book deal that will be released this spring.
Tatiana Calderon is the co-founder of Dreamzign.com, a youth job training platform that training 50 youth per year in urban youth employment. She can also be found on TEDxPanAmericana and with the Virginia Tech Youth Caucus, as well as with Gloria Steinem’s Generation Why Initiative, the New York Times, USA Today, Women’s Day Magazine, and Feministas. She is a senior at Virginia Tech and president of Goya Club of Virginia.
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From: Energy and Environment Staff
To: All of Washington
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 12:02 PM
Subject: NPS Gender Trouble
TO WHO IS READING THIS:
Congratulations to Janine Loeb, Cudahy’s first female City Council President, on your election in 2012. Congrats to Ben Quinn, winner of Cleveland County in Iowa, on running unopposed and assuming leadership of one of the nation’s most conservative counties. Congrats to Barbara Pitkas, the first elected transgender official in New York State, on serving as a city councilwoman in Huntington, NY. Congrats to Jenny Hilbert, vp for diversity at AT&T, on winning the 2017 elections for the Iowa House of Representatives. Congratulations to Sarah Miller, the first female executive director of the Women’s Foundation of Indiana, on leading the successful battle to rescind an election law that women considered an affront to our freedom to speak freely. And congratulations to Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) on securing federal funding to transform the Stockholm Building (formerly RFK Stadium) in D.C. into ” the most expansive athletic field in the nation.”
But none of these achievements is likely to count for anything if — despite a strong showing at the polls — the composition of our federal government continues to be skewed by an underrepresentation of women in both parties.
A recent study of the Directors of the Big Four Exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington found that women would represent 32 percent of the roster. The ratio was 29.9 percent at the Kennedy Center, 27.2 percent at the Smithsonian and 21.7 percent at the National Museum of American History. Just nine women have served as chairs of the National Endowment for the Arts, far lower than the 41.3 percent that serve in the U.S. Senate. And women make up less than a quarter of congressional committee chairmanships.
Whether these numbers persist requires a solution. It requires that more women lead decision-making processes in the public arena. It requires that we continue to elect women to public office. It requires that women work to shatter the glass ceiling. And it requires that more women are prepared to occupy a seat at the table.