Linda Neal, one of the Island's original settlers, has left her post as Superintendent of the Governors Island National Monument for a new assignment in Washington, replaced by Patti Reilly, who has been acting superintendent for Jamaica Bay in the Gateway National Recreation Area.
Linda Neal first came to the Island in 1996, to check it out as a site that warranted preservation by the National Park Service. She recommended it, and you know the rest. When President Clinton created the National Monument, she became its first superintendent - with no staff.
Linda Neal first came to the Island in 1996, to check it out as a site that warranted preservation by the National Park Service. She recommended it, and you know the rest. When President Clinton created the National Monument, she became its first superintendent - with no staff.
Patti Reilly has spent three decades in federal service, most of it in Gateway, where she started as a park ranger. Her main focus has been education and interpretation, park planning, operations and partnerships. Her recent base has been at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, bracketing the harbor across from Castle Williams.
Neal has been with the Park Service since 1987, when she started on Wildcat Brook Wild and Scenic River in New Hampshire with a fresh masters degree in landscape architecture from Harvard. Next stop was the Blackstone River Valley in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, between Worcester and Providence, where she was project manager for creating a National Heritage Corridor - and, not incidentally, where she met and married NPS colleague Jim Pepper.
Her lasting monument on the Island is having gotten the National Monument up and running. Her six years are marked by the development of a General Management Plan for the two forts - Fort Jay and Castle Williams and the land between - and, from the outset, her effective push to open the Island and the Monument to the public. Producing a plan so quickly was no small feat. Planning for a new site can take up to 15 years. Meanwhile, to make the most of a small budget, she worked with the Alliance and other partners to put on introductory tours for thousands of early visitors.
In Washington, Neal will work with national parks across the country to plan and complete construction projects jointly with partner organizations. Her new title is Partnership Construction Coordinator for the Office of Partnerships and Philanthropic Stewardship. Mike Shaver, her deputy on the Island, is "holding the fort(s)" until Reilly takes over this month.
Reilly's most recent previous assignment was as program manager for Partnerships and Agreements in the Park Service's Northeast Region Office of Interpretation and Education. Earlier posts have included director of the Northeast Center for Education Services and director of the Parks as Classrooms program of the National Parks Foundation, where she directed the NPS's official non-profit partner's efforts in education programs at national parks. She has also been an education specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Before that she spent 11 years at Gateway as a park ranger and chief of interpretation.
A native of Queens, she has a master's degree in Marine biology from Long Island University. She has received two NPS Superior Achievement Awards.
Neal has been with the Park Service since 1987, when she started on Wildcat Brook Wild and Scenic River in New Hampshire with a fresh masters degree in landscape architecture from Harvard. Next stop was the Blackstone River Valley in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, between Worcester and Providence, where she was project manager for creating a National Heritage Corridor - and, not incidentally, where she met and married NPS colleague Jim Pepper.
Her lasting monument on the Island is having gotten the National Monument up and running. Her six years are marked by the development of a General Management Plan for the two forts - Fort Jay and Castle Williams and the land between - and, from the outset, her effective push to open the Island and the Monument to the public. Producing a plan so quickly was no small feat. Planning for a new site can take up to 15 years. Meanwhile, to make the most of a small budget, she worked with the Alliance and other partners to put on introductory tours for thousands of early visitors.
In Washington, Neal will work with national parks across the country to plan and complete construction projects jointly with partner organizations. Her new title is Partnership Construction Coordinator for the Office of Partnerships and Philanthropic Stewardship. Mike Shaver, her deputy on the Island, is "holding the fort(s)" until Reilly takes over this month.
Reilly's most recent previous assignment was as program manager for Partnerships and Agreements in the Park Service's Northeast Region Office of Interpretation and Education. Earlier posts have included director of the Northeast Center for Education Services and director of the Parks as Classrooms program of the National Parks Foundation, where she directed the NPS's official non-profit partner's efforts in education programs at national parks. She has also been an education specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Before that she spent 11 years at Gateway as a park ranger and chief of interpretation.
A native of Queens, she has a master's degree in Marine biology from Long Island University. She has received two NPS Superior Achievement Awards.