Kris Kirby (NPS photo)
Kris Kirby, a 20-year career employee of the National Park Service, has been selected as superintendent of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge.
The announcement was made in Denver on Thursday by Intermountain Regional Director Sue Masica.
Kirby will assume her new duties October 16, 2016.
Kirby currently serves as the chief of business and revenue management at Yosemite National Park in California. Prior to her assignment there, she served as chief of commercial services at Lake Mead National Recreation Area and previously worked in concessions management at Glacier National Park, a press release said.
“Kris has spent her career fostering relationships inside and outside the service,” Masica said in the press release. “Those skills are an excellent match for this park and its many partners.”
Since October 2012, Kirby has administered and managed the $25 million recreation fee program and the $150 million concession program at Yosemite National Park. The park’s primary concession contract provides a wide range of vistor services, both seasonal and year-round, in one of the nation’s most iconic national parks, the press release said.
“I look forward to the opportunity to partner with the Department of Energy and work with the local communities of Hanford, Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge, to share the complex story of the Manhattan Project and its significant impact on history,†Kirby said.
Kirby obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science from Metropolitan State University of Denver and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
She started her career with the National Park Service in 1996 as a concessions management assistant.
The Manhattan Project National Historical Park was established in November 2015 to preserve portions of three World War II sites where the United States developed the world’s first atomic weapons as part of a top-secret effort called the Manhattan Project. Managed in partnership with the Department of Energy, the three sites that make up the park are located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Hanford, Washington.
Oak Ridge officials and volunteers had worked for years to help establish the park, the first of its type to commemorate the Manhattan Project.
Since the park was established, the National Park Service has started offering park-related events in Oak Ridge, had staff members here, and offered opportunities to those interested in volunteering.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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