Profiles in Leadership featuring Suzanne Lewis

"Yellowstone: The Delicate Balance"
April 4
Reception 1:30 to 2 p.m.
Public Lecture 2 to 3:15 p.m.
Location: University Commons Conference Center Room A

A special Festival on the Green Profiles in Leadership will feature Suzanne Lewis, superintendent of Yellowstone National Park. Before coming to Yellowstone, Lewis was superintendent at Glacier National Park.  She began her NPS career as a seasonal park ranger in 1978 at Gulf Islands National Seashore. During her 11-year tenure at Gulf Islands National Seashore, she served in a variety of positions including park technician, park historian, supervisory park ranger and management assistant to the superintendent.  Chosen in 1988 for an international assignment to the Republic of Haiti, she assisted the United Nation’s efforts to preserve, protect and educate Haitians in the preservation of natural and cultural resources.  In 1989, Lewis was appointed acting superintendent for Christiansted National Historic Site and Buck Island Reef National Monument in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  She was selected in 1990 as the first superintendent for the newly created Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve – a national park site in Jacksonville, Florida.  Lewis served as the superintendent for the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1997 to April 2000, where she managed one of the busiest national recreation areas in the United States. 

Lewis earned her B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) in American History, in 1978, from the University of West Florida.  During her Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program, Lewis completed assignments with the Department of Interior Secretary’s Special Assistant for Alaska, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Walt Disney World Corporation.

The Profiles in Leadership Series is designed to introduce prominent leaders to the UWF and Northwest Florida communities; enrich the teaching and learning environment at UWF; and increase awareness of the university’s unique educational environment among leaders from within and outside the UWF community. The series will continue as UWF President John Cavanaugh selects additional individuals to participate in the program as Profiles in Leadership Fellows. Each fellow will have a distinguished record of leadership and service that exemplifies the university’s mission and personifies its values. Fellows will spend from one to three days at UWF interacting with the campus and Northwest Florida communities.

Yellowstone National Park

For more information, contact Leah Dugan, executive assistant, at 857-6215 or e-mail ldugan@uwf.edu

last update: March 27, 2008