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National Park Service
DISCOVERY 2000: THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE The National Park Service will convene a conference for present and future leaders and stewards of the nearly 400 national parks and programs across the country on September 11-15, in St. Louis, Missouri. The primary goals of the conference are to focus the vision of the Park Service for the 21st century and to cultivate new leadership to meet the challenges facing the parks in the future. "Discovery 2000: The National Park Service General Conference," will be the first such conference held in more than 10 years. "The National Park Service cares for special places saved by the American people," said NPS Director Robert Stanton. "This meeting will provide an opportunity to reflect on our past, re-evaluate our efforts for the future, and renew our commitment to preservation and public enjoyment of our nation's heritage-the national parks, trails, and wild and scenic rivers." The Conference will feature program tracks on Cultural Resource Stewardship, Natural Resource Stewardship, Education, and Leadership. Each track will begin with a keynote speaker of national standing. NPS Director Stanton said, "It gives me great pleasure to announce the keynote speakers will be John Hope Franklin, Edward O. Wilson, Maya Angelou, and Peter Senge. Each of these speakers will bring a wealth of knowledge to the participants and insight from which we will all benefit." Franklin is a legendary figure among American historians. He holds the Presidential Medal of Freedom and is the newly appointed Chair of the National Park System Advisory Board. Wilson, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Diversity of Life, and Consilience: the Unity of Knowledge, is acclaimed as one of the world's most credible advocates of protecting the planet's biodiversity. Angelou, author of 10 best selling books, is regarded as one of America's most distinguished contemporary poets. She lectures regularly throughout the United States and abroad. Senge, a Senior Lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, is the founder of the Society for Organizational Learning whose members are dedicated to building knowledge about fundamental institutional change. Following each keynote, conference participants will choose from a broad selection of instructive lectures, mobile workshops, and in-depth dialogues that consider future scenarios and what the Service might do to prepare for them. The intent of the conference is to produce forward thinking that will guide the NPS for several decades. "As this new century unfolds before us, we hold in our care the special places that weave the very fabric of our nation's great heritage," said NPS Director Stanton. "As stewards of this rich, ever changing tapestry, we must think not only in terms of what we will preserve for this generation, but what also we will pass on for the benefit of countless generations to come. We must embrace the new millennium with all that we have to ensure that the national heritage resources remain pristine in nature, poignant in our nation's history, and the prestigious wonders to the rest of the world that they have always been regarded." - NPS - |
