Former Director of National Park Service to Speak at Monfort Professor-In-Residence Lecture April 27

Robert Stanton, former director of the National Park Service, will speak about "Natural Resources in the National Parks: Challenges and Opportunities for the 21st Century" at the Monfort Professor-in-Residence lecture at 3:15 p.m. April 27 in Clark Building Room A201 on the Colorado State University campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Stanton was confirmed as the 15th director of the National Park Service in 1997 and served as the director until the end of the Clinton administration overseeing 390 units and the expansion of parks such as Great Sand Dunes National Park. He was the first director to undergo confirmation hearings before the United States Senate and the first African American to serve in the position since the National Park Service was established by congressional legislation in 1916.  

Stanton was originally hired by Stuart Udall, then Secretary of Interior, in the early 1960s to serve as a park ranger in Grand Teton National Park, Wyo. Since then, he has served in several parks including the Virgin Islands, Washington, D.C. area parks and the National Mall before becoming director.

Stanton is an executive professor at Texas A&M University in the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences where he also served as a senior fellow from 2004-2008. Stanton received an honorary doctorate from Texas A&M in 2007 and has several other honorary doctorates including Huston Tillotson, his alma mater in Dallas, Texas.

He serves on several boards including the National Park Foundation’s African American Experience Fund, The News Museum and the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History that will be built on the National Mall. He has received numerous national awards for outstanding public service and leadership in conservation, historic preservation, youth programs and diversity in employment and public programs. Stanton is particularly passionate about introducing youth to national parks as the next generation of stewards.

The lecture, hosted by Warner College of Natural Resources, will be followed by a reception which includes a National Park Service collection exhibit from the Albright family recently acquired by the CSU Morgan Library.

The Monfort Professor-in-Residence program brings accomplished leaders from business, government and the arts to campus to interact with students and enrich their learning experiences. The program is part of a $3.1 million gift from the Monfort Family Foundation.

For more information, contact Roberta Brouwer at (970) 491-1902 or Roberta.Brouwer@colostate.edu.

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