Coalition Executive Council

Mary Bradford has served for over 40 years in parks and environment, including 30 years with the National Park Service, beginning as a seasonal ranger and ranger-historian (National Capital Parks, various); Park Ranger (Cabrillo National Monument and Yosemite NP Task Force); Interpretive Planner (North Atlantic and Western Region parks); Attorney-Advisor (Legislative Counsel) for National Parks and Alaska matters; assignment to the Oceans and Environment section of the Department of State for Bering Sea issues; Assistant to the Director (WASO); Deputy Regional Director (Southwest Region - Santa Fe); and NPS Associate Director for Administration. She holds both the Meritorious and Superior Service awards and was a member of the NPS National Leadership Council from 1994-97. After retirement from NPS, she operated a consulting group on environment, health and education, led community planning groups, and served five years on the Boards of Eastern National and the E&AA. Since2005, Mary has been Director of Parks for Montgomery County, Maryland, overseeing 400+ parks, around 800 employees, an annual $16 million construction budget, and an annual operating and acquisition budget of approximately $100 million. She is a member of the Association of National Park Rangers, NRPA, NPCA, and the Sierra Club. Mary has a B.A. in History, M.S. from Stanford Graduate School of Business, a J.D. from Georgetown Law, and has studied in Spain. Her hobbies include trail hiking, skiing, travel, geology and boating. She and her husband Bill have two daughters, both of whom have worked for the National Park Service, and two grandchildren (who aren’t old enough …yet.) Mary lives in Silver Spring, MD. Term expires December 31, 2010. Contact Mary at mary_bradford@npsretirees.org.

Phil Brueck is a second-generation employee having been raised mostly in Zion National Park where is father was the Chief Ranger for many years. Phil spent 33 years with the NPS starting out as a Law Enforcement Technician at Pt. Reyes National Seashore and working his way through the ranks of law enforcement, search & rescue, interpretation, resources management, administration and management. He spent 30 years of his career either in mid-level or upper level park management and worked in two regional offices (the last as Deputy Regional Director for the Mid-Atlantic Region) and the Washington office (as the Service-wide Re-Engineering Specialist reporting to the NPS Deputy Director). During his career he served on many national task forces (NPS & Departmental) dealing with everything from contracting, fire management, training, law enforcement, cultural & natural resources (he was a member of the original NPS Resources Inventorying & Monitoring task force), operations evaluation systems, and at the time of his retirement was the 'lead' person for the Service on RS-2477 road right-of-way issues. Phil helped develop the NPS system for evaluating park and regional office operations, and served as a Team Captain or member of over 40 operations evaluation teams visiting parks or regional offices. During his career at 13 different areas across the country, he was often involved with classes at local universities & colleges, and was a principle instructor for the NPS teaching classes at Mather, Albright & FLETC in budget, planning, resources management, interpretation, safety, operations, and other subjeccts, with his favorite being courses involving supervision & leadership skills. Over the years he has also taught seminars on re-engineering business processes to local, state & federal agencies as well as to representatives from the private sector. He brings to the organization many years of experience in intergovernmental relations, consensus-building, operations and coalition development. He lives with his wife in Saratoga Springs, Utah. Term expires December 31, 2009. Contact Phil at phil_brueck@npsretirees.org.

Don H. Castleberry has a B.S. in Geology from the University of Arkansas and a Masters Degree in Environmental Management from the University of Indiana. He completed a 32 year career in the National Park Service, where he began as Park Ranger in Everglades National Park. He served as Park Manager of 5 parks, was the Deputy Regional Director of the Mid-Atlantic Region in Philadelphia and the Regional Director of the Midwest Region in Omaha. He also served as acting Associate Director for Operations in the Washington Office of the NPS. Don Lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. Term expires December 31, 2010. Contact Don at don_castleberry@npsretirees.org.

Maureen Finnerty retired in January 2005 after nearly 31 years with the National Park Service. During her tenure with NPS she worked in 3 national parks, a regional office and had two tours of duty in NPS Headquarters. Her specific park assignments included being Superintendent at Olympic and Everglades National Parks. She also held the position of Associate Director of Park Operations in Washington, DC (1994-2000), and Associate Regional Director of Operations in Philadelphia. Maureen served as president of the Association of National Park Rangers (1985-86), and is a recipient of the Department of Interior’s Meritorious Service award (1996). Maureen lives in Haymarket, VA. Term expires December 31, 2009. Contact Maureen at maureen_finnerty@npsretirees.org.

Denny Huffman began his career as a Park Ranger (Student-Trainee) at Yosemite National Park while attending the University of Utah. After his post-graduation stint at the Horace Albright Training Center he filled a variety of successive Ranger positions at Great Smoky Mountains NP, Fredericksburg NMP, and Virgin Islands NP before serving as the first Superintendent (employee) at Canaveral National Seashore. From Canaveral he moved on to Superintendencies at Great Sand Dunes NM, Colorado NM, and Dinosaur NM where he retired in 1997 after 34 years with NPS and a total of 38 years with the federal government. Denny was awarded the Department of Interior's Meritorious Service Award in 1988. He has served on the board of the River Management Society since 1994. He lives in Washougal, WA and finds time for whitewater boating, sea kayaking, and motorcycle touring with his local BMW club. Term expires December 31, 2008. Contact Denny at denny_huffman@npsretirees.org.

Abby Miller ended her 17-year National Park Service career as Deputy Associate Director, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science. In NPS, she helped design the Inventory and Monitoring Program and was a key player in the Natural Resource Challenge program to increase the NPS’s natural resource management capabilities. Additionally, she served in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fisheries Program; the Outer Continental Shelf leasing program in environmental compliance and program administration positions (Bureau of Land Management, Office of the Secretary, and Minerals Management Service, at field and headquarters levels); the Bureau of Land Management’s Office of Policy; and the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation regional office in Philadelphia. Abby graduated from the University of Michigan in 1972 with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. She resides in Shelburne, Vermont. Term expires December 31, 2008. Contact Abby at abby_miller@npsretirees.org.

Rebecca Mills retired in 2002 as Superintendent of Nevada’s Great Basin National Park, after 24 years of service in the National Park Service. Previously, she was Regional Equal Opportunity Manager for the Western (now Pacific West) Region, and Western Regional Youth Programs Manager, overseeing the youth employment and conservation corps. She joined the National Park Service in mid-career, having earlier worked as a fund-raiser for Stanford University, as Director of Advocates for Women---a women’s economic development center, as administrative analyst for the University of California Statewide office, and as a social worker. Becky earned a B.A. in History (international history) from Swarthmore College and a M.S.W. (community organization for social welfare) from the University of California. In addition to serving as the Coalition’s Executive Council member focused on fundraising, she is a member of the board of directors of the Great Basin National Park Foundation and an active grandmother. She lives in Berkeley, California. Term expires December 31, 2009. Contact Becky at becky_mills@npsretirees.org.

Doug Morris completed a 40 year career with the National Park Service in January, 2005. Early assignments included work as a park ranger at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, District Ranger at Point Reyes National Seashore and Sequoia National Park, and Chief Ranger at Cape Cod National Seashore and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks..Mr. Morris also served for six years as an instructor at the Horace Albright Training Center at Grand Canyon, Arizona. A high point during his years as a law enforcement ranger was assignment to the first team of 20 rangers providing initial protection/community education in the newly created national monuments in Alaska during the summer of 1979. Doug served as a park superintendent for 13 years, first at Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Arizona then at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. For the last three years of his assignment at Saguaro National Park Mr. Morris served concurrently as the Acting Chief of the Western Archeological and Conservation Center. Throughout his career with the National Park Service Doug was often called upon to be a member of various work groups assigned to develop new NPS policies, especially those addressing natural resources management, employee training, wilderness management, fire management, and law enforcement. During the latter stages of his career, Mr. Morris often traveled outside the U.S. for the purpose of transporting NPS policies and practices. He has worked with government leaders and local park staff in Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. For four years he served as a key NPS representative advancing implementation of a formal partnership between the USNPS and the EUROPARC Federation, an organization that included managers of parks and preserves throughout Europe. A high point of his work in the international arena was a five-year collaboration with the World Bank and USAID to assist parks and protected areas in Croatia. More recently, Doug has visited China in collaboration with leaders from the Global Heritage Foundation for the purpose promoting quality visitor experiences in the Ancient City of PingYao and the Wutai Shan Scenic Mountains. In November, 2007, Mr. Morris attended an International Workshop in the Galapagos Islands contributing to development of a strategy for a new Vocational Training Institute to be established there. Mr. Morris is a native Californian and graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in Wildlife Management. He now resides in the Bitterroot Valley in Victor, Montana. Term expires December 31, 2010. Contact Doug at doug_morris@npsretirees.org.

Bill Wade is a second-generation NPS careerist, reared in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, where his father spent nearly his entire career as Chief Park Ranger. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and biological sciences from Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO, in 1964. Following service in the U.S. Army, as an officer in the Corps of Engineers (including service in Viet Nam), he began his NPS career in 1967, as a park ranger in Mount Rainier NP, WA. Subsequent assignments took him to Yosemite NP, CA as a sub-district ranger; National Capital Parks, Central in Washington DC as a unit manager; and training specialist at the NPS Albright Training Center in Grand Canyon NP, AZ. In 1976-77, he spent one year in New Zealand on a Fulbright Scholarship assignment assisting with the development of a park ranger-training program at Lincoln College. He then served as Assistant Chief Ranger in Great Smoky Mountains NP, TN and NC. In 1981, he took another one-year overseas assignment in Trinidad and Tobago with the Organization of American States as a consultant to the government regarding National Parks and other protected areas. He returned to the NPS as Assistant Superintendent of Delaware Water Gap NRA, PA and NJ, followed by an assignment as Superintendent of the NPS Mather Training Center in Harpers Ferry, WV. He was assigned to the position of Superintendent, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, in 1988 and retired from that position in July, 1997, after 34 years of Federal service. Bill lives in Tucson, Arizona. Currently serving as Chair of the Executive Council. Term expires December 31, 2009. Contact Bill at bill_wade@npsretirees.org.