David Vela Selected as Southeast Regional Director for the National Park Service

David Vela will be the new Southeast Regional Director, one of seven regional directors for the National Park Service. “David came up through the ranks, beginning as a frontline park ranger,” said Mary A. Bomar, National Park Service Director. “His early field experience prepared him to be a great superintendent and now he will apply those same skills as regional director.”

The Southeast Region encompasses 66 parks in nine states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, and welcomes over 60 million visitors a year. It has a $204 million operating budget and employs more than 2,600 people, including 174 employees at the regional office in Atlanta. Since 1998, Vela has served as superintendent for several park units including the George Washington Memorial Parkway ( 2006-2008 ), Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park ( 2004-2006 ), and Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site ( 1998-2002 ). In 2002, he was appointed the Texas State Coordinator for the Intermountain Region of the National Park Service. Vela began his career with the National Park Service in 1981 at San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. He transferred to Appomattox Court House National Historical Park as a supervisory park ranger in 1984 and then to Independence National Historical Park in 1986 as a district ranger. From 1987 to 1998, Vela resigned from the National Park Service and worked as a Special Agent with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Inspector General, performing white-collar criminal investigations in New York and New Jersey. He also served as a Special Assistant for Hispanic Affairs to the late U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland, worked as a Federal Investigator with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and was appointed as the Director of the Texas Child Support Program by the Attorney General of Texas in 1996. Vela holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Recreation and Parks from Texas A&M University. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a Distinguished Service Award in 1998 from the Federal Commissioner of Child Support Enforcement, the Intermountain Region’s “Pinnacle Award” in 2002, a Departmental “Superior Service” Award in 2003, and former Secretary Manuel Lujan, Jr.’s Champion Award in 2006. Vela graduated from the U.S. Department of the Interior Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program in May 2006. He was the 2007 recipient of The Leslie M. Reid Alumni Award - For Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Recreation, Parks, or Tourism by a Graduate of the Department of Recreation, Parks & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University.

Contact( s ): David Barna, 202-208-6843 “*

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