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| Superintendent Stephanie Dubois, Mojave National Preserve |
Needles Desert Star
OAKLAND, Calif. - Stephanie Dubois has been selected to be the next superintendent of Mojave National Preserve, located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County between Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. She replaces Dennis Schramm who retired in the fall of 2010.
“Steph is an approachable, team-oriented person. She has worked on internal park issues and across park boundaries with park staffs, neighboring communities and other agencies to create shared visions and solve problems across landscapes,” said Pacific West Regional Director Chris Lehnertz. “A proven cornerstone of her leadership style is a desire to invite and respect the powerful ‘sense of place' that people have with the lands the National Park Service oversees.”
Dubois has been serving as the deputy superintendent of Glacier National Park in northwest Montana since 2005, where she manages park operations on just over 1 million acres, for 2 million visitors a year. “I am very excited to be heading south and west again, to the land of the sun and the wide-open desert landscapes that are my geography. I have lived and worked in the Sonoran Desert and in the canyon country of the Colorado Plateau, and now I am looking forward to learning about and exploring the challenges, ecosystems, features, and moods of the Mojave,” said Dubois.
“I am also thrilled to take the helm of Mojave National Preserve following Dennis Schramm, who set a great tenor in working with others to protect and interpret a remarkable ecosystem.”
Dubois is a 30 year veteran of the National Park Service and has experience at all levels of the organization. Prior to her assignment at Glacier National Park, she served as the superintendent of Chaco Culture National Historical Park from 2002-5 and the superintendent at Aztec Ruins National Monument from 2001-2. She has worked in interpretation and law enforcement in parks across the country ranging from Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona and Utah to Roger Williams National Memorial in Rhode Island. Her first National Park Service job was as a high school graduate with the Youth Conservation Corps in Maryland.
Dubois holds a bachelor's degree in botany from Duke University and remains a steadfast Duke basketball fan. She enjoys all time spent outdoors, loves to garden, enjoys back-road camping with friends, and has a lively creative and artistic side that she expresses through batik. She grew up in an Air Force family, the second of seven children, and attributes her love of nature to family outings in the many places she lived during her youth, especially when her father was stationed in South Dakota and other bases in the West.
Dubois will begin her new assignment in May 2011. She will manage a staff of 60 full-time employees and a budget of approximately $5 million.