A Diverse and Dynamic Workforce

By Kim Heacox

The Final Frontier: Alaska | A Changing Climate | Ecology Emerges | The California Desert
The Centennial Challenge | A Diverse and Dynamic Workforce

It stands to reason that the Park Service, charged with protecting biological, ecological, and cultural diversity in America's greatest landscapes and historical sites, would one day embrace diversity in its workforce, and hire men and women of mixed cultural and ethnic backgrounds. But reason takes awhile—perhaps a generation or two—to sail the shoals of prejudice. Check any historical photograph of rangers lined up for duty in a U.S. national park 90, 60, or 30 years ago and you find mostly (if not only) white men straddling horses and driving military surplus trucks. Not today. Minorities are the new majority. Diversity is the new buzzword, inclusion the new goal: make national parks relevant and meaningful to all Americans. Staff them with who we are. Open them up to more than just a narrow segment of the U.S. population.

In 1998 the Park Service established the Cultural Resources Diversity Program to "develop programs and approaches that will diversify the professional workforce in the cultural resources/historic preservation field," via research, publications and internship programs. "Diversity," according to the agency, "encompasses more than the differences in race, religion, national origin, disabilities, age, gender or sexual orientation. It includes respecting and appreciating individual differences and ensuring all employees are included as full contributing and influential team members."

By contrast, photograph any large national park staff today and you'll see a rainbow of white, Indian, Asian, Hispanic and African-American faces, young and old, men and women. Graduate and undergraduate degree programs have been established at universities across the country, partnering with national parks to give student interns career opportunities that would have seemed unimaginable to their grandparents fifty years ago.

"The story of America is reflected in all the national parks, and all the cultures have stories to tell," said Alvis Mar, recruitment program manager for the Park Service's Midwest Region during a recent visit to Maine's Acadia National Park with 38 ethnically diverse students. The August 2009 event, similar to other events in parks around the country, was a "diversity workshop," designed, Mar said, as an "opportunity to reach out to an under-represented population of students who may be interested in a career in the Park Service." The group attended workshops on how to write resumes for federal service, and how to achieve the backgrounds needed to fill available positions. They camped in the rain, made new friends, and had a blast.

Diversity workshops typically involve career counselors and academic advisors from colleges and nongovernmental organizations. Hugo Valdez, a bilingual student coordinator for Environmental Learning for Kids, based in Denver, Colorado, said, "Our organization teaches kids that it's their right, not a privilege, to enjoy all the parks." When those kids graduate from college and begin to work in the parks as career professionals, as so many have in the last 20 years, it becomes their responsibility to protect and share the parks. And they do it well, with a smile.

The Final Frontier: Alaska | A Changing Climate | Ecology Emerges | The California Desert
The Centennial Challenge | A Diverse and Dynamic Workforce

Published:  September 19, 2009