Staff Spotlight: George McDonald

George McDonald smiling at Grand Canyon National Park

NPS Photo

To honor Black History Month and beyond, meet George McDonald, the Chief of Youth Programs, and the Experienced Services Program Division.

In his role at the National Park Service (NPS), George oversees projects and programs that involve youth and young adults working at National Park Service sites across the country, primarily focusing on individuals 15 to 30 years old, and those 35 years old or under who are military veterans. These projects generally focus on natural and cultural resource conservation. George explains, "we're in all 50 states and territories. We're as far north as Alaska, as far West as Guam, as far South as the Caribbean, and the projects range from basic trail maintenance projects, to highly sophisticated underwater archaeological digs, to interpretive programming, research on various projects, and social media interactions.”

George invited us into his world as a child and how he got involved with NPS through his brother, who was working for NPS at the time. He was born and raised in New York City in the community known as Harlem and grew up during the 1960s and the 1970s. Hamilton Grange National Memorial was the first national park that he ever visited. He remembers visiting the site at Christmas time, because "Santa Claus was there, and we could sit on Santa Claus’ lap, and we would get our birthday wishes.” At that time, he did not know what the National Park Service was, or what national parks were, but he knew there was something special to these sites.

He also loved to spend time at the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial (the General Grant National Memorial). As a native New Yorker, he called this place Grant's Tomb, which was within walking distance from where he lived. "I would go there, and as a youngster I would climb the trees there. When I became a teenager, I would go to these outdoor jazz concerts that they would have during the summer months through a series known as the Jazz Mobile, so I spent a lot of time in national parks when I was growing up, but I didn't really know that they were national parks," he recalls. As an undergraduate student, he was an intern for the mayor’s office, and he worked at an office building in downtown Manhattan. On any given day, he would see this blacktop parking lot outside the window, and years later in the late 1990s, a discovery was made when the General Services Administration decided to construct a new office tower to house the Internal Revenue Service. They found skeletal remains of approximately 20,000 African Americans who were buried there between the late 17th century (1690s) to the 1780s, and that became known as the African Burial Ground. He helped work on the planning and development of that site back in the early 2000s. It is now known as the African Burial Ground National Monument, which was one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th/21^st century.

People are introduced to the NPS in many ways, and for George, it was through his brother. He remembers how his brother would "travel across the country going to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone. I was like, how are you going to all these cool places, and he said Well, I work for the National Park Service. I was like, can I get a job there? And eventually, I came to the National Park Service, and the rest is history.”

With more than 20 different designations, the National Park System is comprised of more than the 63 sites that include "national park" in the name. For many, this is a realization that is not always clearly known to the public, but a pleasant surprise. The NPS is made up of 423 park units with different designations, including national parks, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, memorials, parkways, preserves, reserves, recreation areas, rivers, scenic rivers and riverways, scenic trails, seashores, and others.

What George finds rewarding in his job is the feeling that he has done something that was "positive, even if I'm having a bad day, which I do have bad days at work, but it's the work, the work that we're involved in, so that this and future generations can enjoy these resources. And that's a huge responsibility. But it also gives me a great deal of fulfillment as a professional, that I'm doing something that is having a positive impact on potentially millions of people." He emphasized the importance of telling all the American stories - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

One of the funniest stories he had to share was back in 2010, when he along with several team members were preparing for the Boy Scouts of America's National Jamboree that took place at Fort A. P. Hill in Virginia. The National Park Service was working with Ocean Spray, and at that time, they were promoting their snack known as Craisins. He remembers an executive from Ocean Spray calling him and asking how many people they would expect. A few days before the event, he was prepared to bring a few boxes of the Craisins in a van, but they told him they had 12 tons of Craisins on a tractor trailer. Despite the confusion over how many Craisins needed to be handed out at the event, the Scouts were happy to get this tasty snack treat to their members. "It was so funny because I had to inform the generals and colonels who were organizing for...about a hundred thousand people that were coming. So, the logistics around 12 tons of Craisins, which was the equivalent of having a Craisin package for every Boy Scout, their parents and every Scout leader was enormous and complex. Telling the military and the whole planning team at the very last minute what I had done was not fun." Now whenever he is in a Boy Scout meeting, those who remember this event playfully remind him of it. "It was better for them to eat those Craisins than to eat salty potato chips," he said chuckling.

On the importance of being able to represent the NPS as a Black employee, he explained how he had been involved in helping to develop a number of National Park Service sites over the course of his career that focus on the Black American story in this country, such as the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site and the African Burial Ground National Monument. He pointed out that "most people think of the chattel slavery period as being a primarily southern thing, but in New York City, a lot of the human trading took place, (Wall Street was the second largest human marketplace in the US) and the fact that there were 20,000 people that were buried in lower Manhattan, and no one knew about it until the late 90s was astonishing. It showed what can happen if we don't treasure history. If we don't make sure that we teach history - all history - so that people know." He also mentioned Fort Monroe National Monument, as well as Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia, and Storer College, which was a Historically Black College that was developed in the post-civil war.

One resource created by NPS staff and interns was the Twenty & Odd video that acknowledges and celebrates the 400 plus years of resistance and resilience of the African American experience in the United States. George continued to stress that the history of Black Americans is diverse, and the stories about their history go beyond sports entertainment and civil rights and need to be told. He pointed out sites, such as the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site, which honors Carter G. Woodson, who coined the phrase "negro history/black history," and was the first person to lay the foundations for what we now celebrate as Black History Month. Other ones were the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, which commemorates the first woman (not Black woman) to found a bank in the United States, and the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, which honors the Buffalo Soldiers of the all Black 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments and 24th and 25th Infantry, who were, among other duties, stationed in Yosemite National Park and Sequoia National Park. Charles Young was the first African American Superintendent of a national park, Sequoia National Park (now known as the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks).

To impart some wisdom on current and future generations, George believes the greatest lesson in his opinion is the ability to listen. "That is a lost art in this country, because we tend to have preset views and opinions, and we tend to only hear ourselves speak, and I have learned over the course of my career that being able to listen to what the people have to say helps to build better products, helps to ensure greater results…to ensure success at whatever the endeavor is.” He found this particularly helpful when he was a project manager for the Presidential Commission for the development of what is now the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall, a Smithsonian Institution.

As the NPS continues to grow and more sites are added, George shared these thoughts: "My hope is that we continue to support these sites, we continue to understand these sites, and we also continue to make these sites open and inclusive places where families and individuals can come. They can learn, but more importantly, they can have fun. The National Park System was developed for the purpose of having fun while recreating, learning, and taking responsibility for conserving our natural and cultural treasures so future generations can enjoy them.” Speaking for himself and not as part of the NPS, he would love to see future National Park Service sites that tell the stories of urban basketball in New York City, soul music, and bebop jazz.

Have a question about Youth or Young Adult Programs? Please e-mail us. Learn more about what we do here. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @NPSYouth and with #NPSYouth.

Duration:

30 minutes, 30 seconds

Meet George McDonald, the Chief of Youth Programs and the Experienced Services Program Division. George oversees projects and programs that involve youth and young adults working at National Park Service sites across the country, primarily focusing on individuals 15 to 30 years old, and those 35 years old or under who are military veterans. These projects generally cover natural and cultural resource conservation. Learn more about him.