News Release

Deanna Mitchell Chosen as Superintendent of Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park

Deanna Mitchell will be the superintendent of Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park.

NPS Photo

News Release Date: February 2, 2018

Contact: John Warren, 215-908-3159

National Park Service (NPS) Northeast Regional Director Gay Vietzke has named Deanna Mitchell as the new superintendent of Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Maryland. Mitchell will begin her new assignment by the end of March. She replaces Diane Miller, who served in an interim capacity since last year.

“Deanna‘s skills and experience fit this new park just right,” said Vietzke. “Deanna’s eight years setting up the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site will serve her well at Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad, which the National Park Service manages with the state of Maryland.”

“I was raised in a small town on the foot of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland,” said Mitchell, who grew up in Havre de Grace in Harford County. “For me, this assignment is truly like coming home and I look forward to being a part of and embracing another small town community. Harriet Tubman is not only a national hero, but she’s also a point of pride for us Marylanders. I’m humbled and excited to be able to share her legacy of courage and I am moved by the beautiful natural setting of this park.”

Mitchell, with a total of 32 years federal government experience, began her tenure with the NPS in 2005 as site manager for what is now the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site. She has just completed her second year under the NPS Bevinetto Fellowship Program as a legislative affairs specialist in the NPS Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs in Washington, D.C. Her first year in the fellowship program was spent on Capitol Hill as a congressional staffer on the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Mitchell also spent seven months on detail with the Department of the Interior’s interagency team implementing the Every Kid in a Park initiative.

Prior to her NPS career, she worked at two other federal departments: first for the Department of Transportation, then for the Department of Defense as an employee of the US Air Force and, later, as an employee of the US Navy.
 

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