My Park Story - Dorcas Meyers

Dorcas Meyers, Secretary to the Executive Director of the National Parks of New York Harbor, with her signature smile.

Courtesy of Dorcas Meyers

When you think of the word community what comes to mind? Is it your neighbors and neighborhood? Or maybe the hit cult-T.V show Community is the first thing to pop into your mind. For Dorcas Meyers, Secretary to the Executive Director of the National Parks of New York Harbor, everything she does and stands for, comes back to the word community. Born in North Carolina, Dorcas along with her three siblings and mother moved to the Bronx when she was around 7 years old. From there the family relocated to Staten Island, where she continues to live to this day.

After graduating from Curtis High School in 1982, Dorcas began a career in the private sector, working for companies such as J.P. Morgan and Financial Guaranty Insurance Company. Following the 2008 financial crisis she was laid off and looking for work, when the wife of an associate forwarded her an ad for a job with the Department of the Interior, National Parks of New York Harbor. Except for the Statue of Liberty, which she had visited on a field trip in elementary school, “I had no idea that these National Parks existed!” Since starting her National Park Service (NPS) career in July of 2008, Dorcas has participated in numerous opportunities, and worked in places such as New York and Washington D.C. After attending a two week training at the Grand Canyon she returned to New York having felt she had found her purpose, “I want to be an ambassador for the National Park Service so that I can let people in my community know about these wonderful places in our own backyard, and we don't have to go to the Midwest to go to see these places.”

An active participant in her own community Dorcas has been recognized for constantly working to connect cultural, historic, and local organizations with the general public. She strongly believes that national parks provide space for mental healing, as well as opportunities for people to connect with their America. “I am so grateful to my associates wife, who sent me the advertisement because if I had not my eyes would not have been open. I've just been so excited about the national parks and want to bring awareness wherever I go.” When asked how she is able to balance her career, community activism, and small business, she simply states, “I'm focused and all about educating, empowering and inspiring. There's a job that has to be done and I am committed.”