October 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 16

WE ARE PARKS AND RECREATION
Welcoming the 2020-2021
NRPA Board of Directors

E

ach year, during the NRPA Annual Conference, NRPA officially
welcomes its incoming class of board members. NRPA's board
members are representative of its membership, which includes
professional and advocate leaders in the park and recreation
movement; park and recreation agencies and organizations representing
the public, private, voluntary, commercial and industrial sectors; firms supplying park and recreation products and services; and individuals and civic
groups interested in the park, recreation, conservation, health and equity
fields. This year, we are excited to welcome five new members to the 2020-
2021 NRPA Board of Directors.

Kathy Abbott
Abbott is the first president and
CEO of Boston Harbor Now, an
organization that partners with
public agencies, community leaders, businesses and other nonprofits
to realize Boston Harbor's potential to benefit the city and region.
Upon assuming this role, Abbott
has come full circle since beginning
her career in college on the Harbor
Islands as a park ranger to currently leading Boston Harbor Now. She
is responsible for working with the

PHOTO COURTESY OF KATHY ABBOTT

Kathy Abbott,
president and CEO
of Boston Harbor
Now.

14

Parks & Recreation

board and staff to create a welcoming and resilient harbor that benefits everyone in the Greater Boston region. Abbott has a history
of leading change through public
and nonprofit organizations, including advancing statewide park
planning, management and land
conservation, educating students
and impacting resource-based
economies in primarily developing
countries through applied environmental studies, creating a new national park through a first-of-its-kind
public-private partnership in Boston Harbor, creating and managing
a statewide park system, increasing
funding for public parks in Massachusetts, and growing the impact
of the only year-round botanic garden in New England. She asserts
that she has never done this work
alone and credits great teams and
collaborations for her success.
Abbott has worked locally and
globally and volunteered nationally to advance the interests of urban
parks as the co-chair of the City
Parks Alliance. Her experience as
an executive and entrepreneur in
government and nonprofits uniquely qualifies her to build upon the

| O C TO B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

successes of the current waterfront
renaissance. Her proudest accomplishments have come as a volunteer working with kids throughout
her career, as a former foster mother and now as a proud mom of a
30-year-old daughter. In 2016, she
was named one of Boston's Power
50 by the Boston Business Journal,
and in 2018, was named one of
the 100 Most Influential People in
Boston by Boston Magazine. She received her degrees from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at
University of Massachusetts Amherst and Harvard University.

Angelou Ezeilo
Ezeilo's love for the environment
stretches far back to when she was
a little girl who had the chance to
escape the dense urban streets of
Jersey City, New Jersey, to summer
in upstate New York.
After a brief stint of practicing
law, it was through her work as a
legal specialist for the New Jersey
State Agriculture and Development Committee that Ezeilo embarked upon a career as an environmentalist.
She further honed her skills as
a project manager for The Trust
for Public Land (TPL) in both its
New Jersey and Georgia offices. In
her position, Ezeilo acquired land
for preservation and worked on
the New York/New Jersey Highlands Program, Parks for PeopleNewark, the New York/New Jersey Harbor Program in New Jersey,
the Atlanta BeltLine and the 20
County Regional Greenspace Ini-
October 2020 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2020 - Parks & Recreation
