News Release

Christa Johnston Selected as Chief of Staff of Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Christa is a public policy and management professional with over a decade’s worth of experience in constituent affairs, partnership engagement, and organizational communication strategies.

News Release Date: January 4, 2023 The National Park Service (NPS) has selected Christa Johnston as Chief of Staff of Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Arizona and Nevada. She had been acting as the park’s Public Affairs Officer since February 2022 and her new permanent position began on January 3, 2023. 

Christa is a public policy and management professional with over a decade’s worth of experience in constituent affairs, partnership engagement, and organizational communication strategies. With experience at local, state, and federal levels of government, she is a skilled collaborator focused on integrating civic and stakeholder interests within public policy priorities.  

“We are very pleased to have Christa Johnston join the Lake Mead Leadership Team as the Chief of Staff. Christa’s knowledge of the park’s low water planning, as well as her experience with communications and policy analysis will be a great benefit to Lake Mead,” said acting Superintendent Mike Gauthier. 

Christa’s work has included Federal policy management, state-level operation planning and implementation, grassroots campaign civic engagement, and coordinating public-private partnership best practices. Her career began as a Communications Specialist for the Ohio Secretary of State where she developed public information content broadening voter education and outreach services for the public. She then served as a Senior Policy and Constituent Affairs Specialist within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Washington, D.C. During this time, Christa supported strategic plan development; emergency response and management processes for hurricane seasons; marine transportation Federal Advisory Committees; and place-based conservation programs across the nation's National Marine Sanctuaries. Notably, she worked with federal interagency policy teams at the Council for Environmental Quality and was a senior staff adviser during the 2017 Presidential Transition. 

“I am honored to be selected as Lake Mead’s Chief of Staff and thrilled to continue supporting this remarkable staff as we look toward the park's future to balance environmental and cultural preservation with recreational successes in the face of climate change.” 

Originally from Ohio, Christa received a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Communication Studies from Otterbein University and has a Master of Arts in Public Policy and Management from The Ohio State University’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs. 

Mike Theune, Regional Fire Communications and Education Specialist from the NPS Pacific West Regional Office, replaced her as the park’s Public Affairs Officer for a limited term detail that began on January 3.