August 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 44

KRISTINE STRATTON

Backpacking through a bog on the way to
Russell Pond, BSP, Maine.

When I think about my favorite
recreation activity, it's really
walking and exploring parks.
I'm a park and rec kid! I identify
as a park and rec kid, and I'm still
a park and rec kid today. I remember I started taking swimming lessons at the municipal pool. This
is central-northern Maine, so it
is cold, cold, cold, cold water. I
will never forget sort of bracing
and sticking a toe in the water and
edging in. But parks have made
a huge, positive difference in my
life. They've made a huge positive
difference in the life of my family. From the elder members of
my family to the kids in my fam42

Parks & Recreation

ily, and I think about going to the
local rec center in Brooklyn with
my cousin and watching my little
7-year-old cousin take swimming
lessons in the rec center. And, just
what a point of pride it was for her
to learn the strokes and get more
confident over time. That, to me,
is a testament to what park and rec
programs can do for us as individuals, but also us as a community.
I talked earlier about how important it is for me to be of service, how
important it is for me to be able to
sink my teeth into hard work, and I
look at this as a dream job because
there's so much opportunity for us
to serve our membership, to expand our membership, to serve the
communities across the country
who care about parks. It's a dream
job for me because I'm helping to
contribute to this virtuous cycle of
making great programs, then seeing the benefit of those great programs to a kid like me, right? So,
that's why it's a dream job.
P&R: How would you describe
your leadership style?
Stratton: Well, for starters, I would
say I'm highly motivated to set ambitious but achievable goals and
supporting the team I'm working
with in order to achieve them. It's
important to me to always be striving for continuous improvement.
I love to ask questions. I love to
support and reinforce the opportunity for our team members to push
themselves to be creative...to strive
for more. That's a hallmark of my
leadership style.
I will also say that over the past
couple of years, I've deepened a
practice in mindful leadership,

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which really helps me stay grounded and helps me set a tone that is
patient and supportive, clear and
focused on what's most important. I hold myself to a high standard. I always have a full plate and
I'm trying to do a lot, and I'm also
trying to do everything in a very
thoughtful, patient, focused way,
which, I think, is a benefit of practicing mindful leadership.
For me, mindful leadership is
also rooted in doing a lot of listening. I just finished my first six weeks
here, and I will say I've been doing
lots and lots of listening and that's
something that will never stop for
me. I want to continue to practice
that. I want to continue learning
and being aware and responding to
what our organization needs, both
internally and externally. I also
would say mindful leadership, to
put a plug in for that, emphasizes
how important culture and culture
building is to the health of an organization. So, that's something that
I want to model and that I want
the leadership team at NRPA to be
modeling, as well.
P&R: Who has been your biggest
mentor or idol and why?
Stratton: An idol that I have is
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese
Buddhist monk and mindfulness
leader who is about as beautiful a
soul and model as you can possibly
imagine. He's taught a lot and written a lot on meditation and meditation practices. One of the teachings
he emphasizes is compassion for
self and for others.
I have a lot of heroes. I've been
extremely blessed to have mentors my whole life, and that's one
thing that I really deeply believe
in, mentorship, and what I always tell younger professionals
and kids that I have the honor to

August 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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