October 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 18

W E A R E P A R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N

Afro; and subcommittee member
of the National Park Service's 21st
Century Conservation Corps.

Angelou Ezeilo,
CEO and founder
of the Greening
Youth Foundation.

tiative in Georgia. While at TPL,
Ezeilo realized the disconnect between the land that was being preserved and the education of people
about that preservation - particularly as it related to our next generation. This was the impetus for
the Greening Youth Foundation.
Under her leadership, the foundation has taken up the charge of
providing environmental access to
underserved children and young
adults through its Public School
Initiative and Youth Conservation
Corps programs. Greening Youth
Foundation provides its services
throughout the country and in
Ghana, West Africa.
Ezeilo is a graduate of Spelman
College, Georgia. She received her
Juris Doctorate in law from the University of Florida, College of Law.
Ezeilo is a member of the National
Center for Civil and Human Rights'
Women's Solidarity Society and
South Fork Conservancy boards; advisory board member for the Arabia
Mountain National Heritage Area,
The Million Mile Greenway, Inc.,
Keeping It Wild, Inc., and Outdoor
16

Parks & Recreation

Vinluan joined the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in
2015 as a senior program officer.
She has been a passionate, professional advocate for health promotion and a distinguished government relations professional on a
variety of health and well-being issues for two decades. Through her
work at the foundation, Vinluan
strives to ensure that all children
in the United States have a healthy
start. She views her role as " bringing new strategies and approaches
to helping make sure all children get
the nutritious foods and drinks they
need to learn, grow and thrive. "
Previously, Vinluan served as
director of the Healthier Communities Initiatives for the YMCA of
the USA, which catalyzed community- and state-level leadership
teams to put in place strategies
and policies that enabled people to
make healthy choices. The Healthier Communities Initiatives -
Monica Hobbs
Vinluan, senior
program oﬃcer
at the Robert
Wood Johnson
Foundation.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MONICA HOBBS VINLUAN

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANGELOU EZEILO

Monica Hobbs Vinluan

| 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

funded by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, RWJF
and a host of other funders - created nearly 250 community teams
and enacted 39,000 policy changes
in advocating for physical activity,
healthy eating and health equity
policy strategies.
Vinluan's experience also includes
serving as a senior policy associate
with the National Recreation and
Park Association. She has worked
with the National Women's Law
Center, the Institute for Women's
Policy Research, the National Association of Child Advocates and
in the office of former U.S. Senator
Charles Robb of Virginia.
Vinluan earned her Juris Doctorate at the American University
Washington College of Law and her
Bachelor of Arts in political science
from Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University (Virginia Tech).
She was the recipient of the Sandra
P. Grasso Scholarship for her commitment to advancing social justice
and feminism, and also was honored
for her work in opening the Women's Center at Virginia Tech.
Born in Virginia, Vinluan currently resides there with her
husband and two children. She enjoys " just
about any out-of-doors
activities, " including hiking, camping and attending her children's numerous sports activities.

Susie Kuruvilla
Kuruvilla entered the
park district world in
1997 as the superintendent of business services
for Gurnee Park District in Illinois. In 2006,
she was promoted as

October 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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