DATE: September 30, 2008

CONTACT: Fran Mainella, 864-656-3400
fmainel@clemson.edu

WRITER: Hannah Sykes, 864-656-2061
hsykes@clemson.edu

Clemson's Fran Mainella elected to National Park Trust board

CLEMSON — Clemson University's Fran Mainella is among three new members of the National Park Trust board of trustees.

The NPT governance committee, based in Washington, D.C., elected Mainella, Michael DeSantis of Choice Hotels International and Lee Verstandig of Brown University.

Mainella's duties will include conservation activities as well as promoting the National Park Trust's mission to ensure that “everyone will have an American park experience.” She is particularly interested in the Children and Nature Network, an organization that promotes reconnecting children with nature.

“Studies have shown that for the first time ever, children 10 and under are less likely to live as long as their parents,” Mainella said. “Obesity is a large factor, but one way to address obesity is getting kids outdoors.”

Mainella has experience in managing both national and state parks. Before coming to Clemson in 2006, she was the 16th director of the National Park Service for six years, the first woman ever to hold the position.

She played a role in the National Park Trust’s management of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, a 10,894–acre ecosystem in Kansas, according to the National Park Service Web site.

“I am honored to now be joining such a leadership board as the National Park Trust,” Mainella said.

Mainella is a visiting scholar in the parks, recreation, and tourism management department at Clemson. Before leading the National Park Service, she served 12 years as the Florida State Park System director. She teaches a graduate course titled “Nature Deficit Disorder: Implications on Human Well-Being.” The course is co-taught with Richard Louv, co-founder of the Children and Nature Network and author of the best-seller “Last Child in the Woods.”

The National Park Trust is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit land conservation organization established in 1983 to acquire and preserve parklands and historic monuments. The trust buys or receives land gifts and entrusts them to organizations that will properly preserve and manage them.