Another non-NPS appointment
Rick Smith
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: January 5, 2021
Contact: news...@nps.gov
National Park Service selects Frank Lands as regional director
Frank Lands has been selected as National Park Service regional director.
WASHINGTON - The National Park Service has selected Frank Lands to serve as the regional director for parks in the pacific west covering Department of the Interior Regions 8, 9, 10, and 12. Lands has more than 20 years of experience managing natural and cultural resources and conservation programs with the U.S. Army. He comes to the position from U.S. Army Fort Bliss, Texas, where he served as the deputy garrison commander. Lands begins his new role on January 16.
“Frank comes to the National Park Service with a wealth of leadership experience guiding natural resources, cultural resources, and conservation programs with the U.S. Army as well as infrastructure and emergency services and public safety programs having overseen operations at one of the most diverse garrisons in our nation’s military,” said NPS Deputy Director Shawn Benge. “His experience aligns with the NPS mission and will support the needs of one of our largest regions as the NPS continues to address the challenges of unprecedented wildfires, drought, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
As regional director, Lands will provide leadership for more than 65 parks in California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, parts of Arizona and Montana, and the territories of Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
“Throughout my career, I have looked for opportunities to get back to my natural resource roots,” said Lands. “It is an honor to support the mission of the National Park Service and the people who protect and preserve some of our nation’s most significant places. I am excited to work with parks and programs to support the Great American Outdoors Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. I look forward to our work together to reduce maintenance backlog, improve infrastructure, and the opportunity to explore the more than 65 parks throughout the region.”
Lands began his career with the U.S. Army as an environmental specialist and forester in 2000. Over the last 10 years, he has held deputy garrison commander positions at five large Army posts and installations. One of these positions was in Italy, where he created a program to connect Americans to their new Italian communities. Through his work, he collaborated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish a memorandum of understanding for improved endangered species management on behalf of the U.S. Army Installation Management Command Atlantic Region. He has been deployed to Iraq twice to support infrastructure and installation management activities for the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development. In addition, he served seven years in the U.S. Army Military Police.
Most recently Lands served as the deputy garrison commander of Fort Bliss, Texas where he led installation operations in support of the Department of Health and Human Services mission to house 10,000 unaccompanied children, and the departments of State and Homeland Security’s missions to house and assimilate over 10,000 Afghanistan evacuees. Lands has also led multimillion-dollar capital improvement projects and worked to address a U.S. Army housing need in Fort Bliss, Texas. In the same role, he managed the largest cultural resource management program in the Army with more than 19,000 archeological sites and 550 historic buildings. Additionally, he led a workforce of over 3,800 military, civilian, and contractor professionals. His U.S. Army experience has fostered relationships with federal, local, and international governments to improve collaboration and communication.
Lands holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Texas, a Master of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College, and a Bachelor of Science in forestry and natural resources from Ohio State University. He looks forward to relocating to the Bay Area, CA with his wife, Angela. Lands enjoys reading, hiking, and cycling.
Rick Smith
5264 N. Fort Yuma Trail
Tucson, AZ 85750
Tel: 520-529-7336
Cell: 505-259-7161
Email: rsmit...@comcast.net
Bill Wade
I’m reminded of the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. He studied a dozen or so companies that were “good” but transformed to “greatness” under new leadership - sometimes outperforming their closest comparable competitors by factors up to 4 in a significant number of measures. In all but one of these companies, the leader responsible came from within the company, instead of being some “Lone Ranger” who galloped in and provided a silver bullet and then left with everyone saying, “Who was that masked man?” and little ability to continue to “take care of themselves.” These “great” leaders (unlike say, an Iacocca and others like him), shunned the limelight, were very humble and focused on the company (not their own self-interests) by, more than anything else, building a leadership team (as Collins puts it: getting the right people on the bus and the wrong people off, but not only the right ones on, but in the right seats) such that succession was paramount.
Granted - harder to do in government, but there is a lot in Collins’s book worth thinking about in the NPS.
Bill Wade
5625 N Wilmot Road
Tucson, AZ 85750
Email: jwbil...@gmail.com
Home/Office Phone = 520-615-9417
Cell Phone = 520-444-3973
From: Parklands Update <parklan...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Rick Smith <rsmit...@comcast.net>
Reply-To: Parklands Update <parklan...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, January 5, 2022 at 4:28 PM
To: Parklands Update <parklan...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [PLW Update] Another non-NPS appointment
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: January 5, 2021
Contact: news...@nps.gov
National Park Service selects Frank Lands as regional director
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