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On May 14, 2020, the National Park Service announced the appointment of Stan Austin as regional director of the South Atlantic-Gulf, America’s most visited NPS region. He will return to the Atlanta-based operation in late June after having served two years as regional director of the NPS Lower Colorado Basin, Columbia-Pacific Northwest, California-Great Basin and Pacific Islands region.

In his new role, Austin will oversee an expanded footprint of 73 parks spanning four million acres and multiple programs in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The region’s parks employ 2,700 people and hosts 43,000 volunteers and nearly 69 million visitors who contribute more than $6 billion to local economies annually.

Austin began his federal career with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where he served in a variety of management positions for more than ten years, including time working as a Division Chief in the Water Program Office. As a Mike Mansfield Fellow with EPA, Austin spent two years in Tokyo, Japan working with the Japan Ministries of Construction and Environment. He also served on several hurricane relief efforts including the Hurricane Mitch federal response team in Nicaragua, providing hurricane relief assistance.

Austin began his National Park Service career at Gateway National Recreation Area as an interpretive park ranger, resource management specialist, and then law enforcement ranger. He later served as deputy superintendent of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, superintendent of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah/Arizona, acting deputy superintendent at Yosemite National Park in California, superintendent at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, and regional director for the Southeast (current South Atlantic-Gulf) Region.

A New Jersey native, Austin earned a bachelor of science in environmental sciences with a focus on biology from Rutgers University.

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