What New Orleans neighborhood do you live in? / Where did you grow up?
9th Ward/St. Roch. I was born and raised in Franklin (which is in St. Mary Parish, not the Northshore)
Describe your job to us!
I have the privilege of managing an incredible team of dedicated professionals that maintain, develop, beautify and preserve a wide variety of public greenspaces and the City's tree canopy: from Jackson Square to Brechtel Park and every neutral ground in between...and Joseph M. Bartholomew Golf Course in Pontchartrain Park. I work closely with the leadership teams at NORDC, City Park Conservancy, Audubon Nature Institute, SWBNO as well as the City's Infrastructure Team: Sanitation, Office of Resilience and Sustainability, Public Works, Property Management, among others. We at Parkways pride ourselves on our public engagement, ability to impact people's lives by improving public greenspaces and our responsiveness during events like Mardi Gras and after emergency events.
Tell us about your career path.
After spending a few years in Lebanon and Syria teaching English and exploring my cultural roots, I moved back to New Orleans in 2006. I quickly became involved in neighborhood association tree planting and improvement initiatives and returned to Loyola to obtain a law degree. In 2015 I joined the City of New Orleans as an Assistant City Attorney focusing on blight reduction in the Department of Code Enforcement. My longtime interest in public greenspaces led me from volunteering over the years to eventually joining the board of Parkway Partners. In 2020, I took over as Director of the Department of Parks and Parkways, with invaluable guidance and mentorship by the outgoing director, Ann Macdonald. In this position, I have been able to put my skills and passions to work as mentioned in the above paragraph.
What aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?
Working with the Parkways staff, our partners and residents to improve public greenspaces. It is so simple to say, but so rewarding everyday.
Also, small victories or improvements that may go unnoticed are often the most rewarding...somewhere, someone appreciates the fix or enhancement...it's public service at its best.
What challenges do you find to be the greatest in your role?
The diversity of greenspaces that we manage: thousands of acres that range in focus and size: from historical, passive parks and spaces, to neutral grounds and rights of way, to a golf course and playgrounds to green infrastructure projects. Also, managing and growing our tree canopy and working with partner departments and entities on green infrastructure expansion is challenging in that much of it is new territory for the department, but vital to the City's future. The support and partnership that we receive from those groups and our park partners is invaluable and allows us to move past challenges.
What is your favorite thing about New Orleans?
The people, greenspaces, food, culture, density, history...we're a one of a kind place on this Earth, know what I mean?