Lisa Petit name deputy superintendent of CVNP and two historic sites

Craig Kenkel, superintendent of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, James A. Garfield National Historic Site, and First Ladies National Historic Site, announced the selection of Dr. Lisa Petit as the new deputy superintendent of the three parks. She began her National Park Service career at CVNP in 2000 as a wildlife biologist, and in 2006 became chief of the CVNP Resource Management Program. During her time at CVNP, Petit oversaw all science, engineering, design, planning, environmental compliance, and resource stewardship activities for the park.

Petit led the park’s efforts to restore and improve the condition of natural and cultural resources to drive the ecological recovery of the Cuyahoga River watershed, expand public access, and enhance the visitor experience within the park. In addition to fostering several international park relationships, Petit and her team developed numerous  partnerships with federal and state agencies, nonprofit organizations, and metropolitan park districts, leveraging more than $20 million in external funding for restoration over the past five years.

Petit holds a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Arkansas, during which time she spent a year as a doctoral scholar at Cambridge University in England. She also holds a Master of Science degree in Biology from Bowling Green State University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology from The Ohio State University. She grew up in northern Virginia where her first national park experiences were in the National Capitol region and the national battlefields of Virginia and Maryland.

Prior to joining the National Park Service, Petit was a research biologist for eight years with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Her research is widely published in peer-reviewed journals and focused on impacts of human land use on wildlife ecology and understanding the role of protected areas in resource conservation. This research was conducted primarily in national parks and other protected areas in Latin America and across the eastern United States, including within Cuyahoga Valley National Park.