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Born in Connecticut and loved visiting the national parks as a kid with her family. While in college, she worked as a summer playground counselor and later taught physical education. After several years she decided to focus on recreation and in 1977 Mainella started to work as an Assistant Center Director of the Tallahassee Parks and Recreation Department in Florida. A few years later she became the Director of Florida’s State Parks and served in this position for 12 years.
Mainella administrated and supervised on 155 state parks, museums, trials, etc., covering 500,000 acres, created new jobs and developed new programs. In 1999, Florida was awarded with the Gold Medal Award, recognized as the best state park system in America.
In 2001 Mainella was nominated as the 16th director of the National Park Service (NPS) and became the first woman to hold this position. She supervised on 84 million acres of national parks, museum, monuments, etc. After six years of service, she decided to retire from the NPS and develop other programs she was passionate about, one of them is co-founding and co-chairing the US Play Coalition.
Fran Mainella, the first woman National Park Service Director, leads Southwest Florida Park partners in celebration of the Centennial Year of National Parks.
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“Reach out and go beyond your boundaries... you also need the courage to fail - take that risk.”
“Reach out and go beyond your boundaries... you also need the courage to fail - take that risk.”
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A Founding Mother of the United States, a Women’s Rights Advocate, and the Second First Lady.
A feminist artist and sculptress, known as “The sculptor of the women’s suffrage movement.”
A leader for women’s rights and famous for promoting a federal constitutional amendment for woman suffrage.
A pioneering pilot who set many aviation records, including the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean and the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean.
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