Wendy K. Janssen

Keynote Panelist, Day 1

Throughout Wendy Janssen’s 33-year career with the National Park Service (NPS), she has been committed to furthering the mission of the Service, reaching out to and working with diverse communities, and developing and fostering partnerships to further mutual goals and create a shared vision.

From 2008 to February 2013, Wendy served as superintendent of two parks, Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument (one of three units in the NPS that contains a portion of the Oregon National Historic Trail) and Minidoka National Historic Site in Idaho, with a unit of Minidoka in Bainbridge Island, Washington. Since March 2013, she has been the superintendent of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

Wendy has worked in management positions at parks across the country including Cabrillo National Monument, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site and Preservation District, and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, in addition to being a planner at the Service’s Harpers Ferry Interpretive Design Center and in park ranger positions from Hawaii to New Hampshire. Though seemingly different, each site’s mission is the same – to preserve and protect irreplaceable resources for all to experience and connect the meaning and relevance of those sites with the public.

Wendy is a graduate of Rutgers University, and during her professional career is a graduate of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government’s Senior Executive Fellows Program, the National Parks Institute Executive Leadership Seminar, and the Aspen Institute Executive Leadership Seminar.