The Olmsted Park Conservancy crossed off the "interim" in Stephanie Crockatt's title Thursday and made her the organization's executive director.When Thomas Herrera-Mishler resigned last year, Crockatt was named the interim, moving up from her post as senior director of institutional advancement.
Crockatt is a landscape architect and former president and executive director of the LPGA Tournament Owners Association.
Board Chairman Kevin Kelly says there were 17 applications locally and nationally for the job and Crockatt was picked as the best fit to move the conservancy forward.
"We've developed a plan for the 21st Century. The plan is eight years old now. It's time to update the list the priorities," Kelly said.
"Stephanie is leading a group on that right now, to where we revisit what the plan had said and how do we update the list of priorities of what's important to the Conservancy and the community. That's one of her first charges."
Crockatt says Herrera-Mishler did a great job in rebuilding the physical base of the conservancy and it's now her job to build the fiscal base with an endowment to ensure the work of preserving and protecting the Olmsted network of parks and parkways will continue.
"I think we've proven our point, that we can make these parks restorative and beautiful healthy landscapes," Crockatt said.
"For the future, what we haven't done a good job of is building an endowment or building funding to keep what we have just made beautiful, beautiful."
