Kevin Eads Selected as Superintendent of Pea Ridge National Military Park

Kevin Eads, Superintendent at Pea Ridge National Military Park

NPS Photo

News Release Date: February 12, 2015 Kevin Eads, a 24-year veteran of the National Park Service, has been selected as the new superintendent of Pea Ridge National Military Park. Eads, currently the park's chief of resource management, begins his new assignment on March 8th. He succeeds John Scott, who has retired.

"We are proud to have Kevin as the next superintendent of Pea Ridge NMP," says Acting Midwest Regional Director Patricia Trap. "His familiarity with the park resources and his proven dedication to this park will be a tremendous asset. He is well-known and well-respected throughout the community, and has fostered partnerships with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative to continue restoration of the landscapes within the park." 

"As the chief of resource management at Pea Ridge NMP, I have lived and worked with the local communities of northwest Arkansas for the past twelve years," says Eads. "As the new superintendent, I am privileged to remain at the park and to continue working with great staff, incredible park neighbors, partners and the communities of northwest Arkansas in the restoration and preservation of one of the most pivotal, and intact, Civil War battlefields in the United States." 

Eads, who holds a B.S. in wildlife biology from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma and an M.S. in forest resources from the University of Arkansas, Monticello, began his National Park Service career at George Washington Carver National Monument. He has also worked at George Washington's Birthplace National Monument, and completed detail assignments at Petersburg National Battlefield and Booker T. Washington National Monument. As a resource manager at Arkansas Post National Memorial, he developed the park's GIS database, conducted multiple studies, developed a cooperative agreement with the University of Arkansas at Monticello, and received the Natural Resource Trish Patterson Student Conservation Association Award for developing the park into a natural laboratory for resource issues. Eads enjoys spending time with his family, advising on Odyssey of the Mind projects, fishing, gardening, hiking, and hunting. He and wife LaDena, an assistant principal at Springdale High School, have been married for 23 years and have two sons, Chad and Hunter. [Submitted by Mike Johnson]