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Committees

Visitation and Public Engagement Committee

Committee Members

Committee Advisors

  • Dave Simon, Director, New Mexico State Parks
  • Ruth Coleman, Director, California State Parks
  • Nina Roberts, Ph. D., Professor, Department of Recreation, Parks & Tourism, San Francisco State University
  • Emilyn Sheffield, Ph. D., Professor, Department of Recreation and Park Management, California State University, Chico
  • Peter Streit, Community Relations and Giving Administrator, REI
  • Others TBD

Key Issues

  1. How do changing demographics in America change the ways that people engage with national parks?
  2. Who is not coming to parks and why not?
  3. How can the National Park Service effectively utilize contemporary technology to engage new and existing audiences?
  4. How does the NPS engage diverse cultures in caring for and visiting national parks and other nationally significant heritage places?
  5. What are the emerging needs of our society that national parks and National Park Service programs can help provide solutions for?
  6. How will parks be visited in the future?
  7. How can parks be designed to serve a full range of potential visitors?
  8. How can the national parks promote civic engagement related to the values that the parks represent?

Committee Workplan – Major Tasks

  1. Identify Key Areas of Focus for committee work and long-term vision success.
  2. Establish regular conference calls and meetings to focus work on key issues.
  3. Establish advisors group to work via the web to provide advice to the committee.
  4. Develop “white papers” to support additional dialogue as needed.
  5. Develop draft recommendations for discussion at the Commission meeting at Gettysburg, March 2008.