About me
Ernestine serves as the national youth employment program coordinator in the Youth Programs Division within the Directorate of Workforce and Inclusion in Washington, D.C. In her role, she assists in coordinating over $14 million worth of nationally funded, diversity-focused youth and young adults’ employment and developmental programs. These programs help the agency connect with and engage in developmental and job skills programs for over 8,000 youth and young adults. They also engage over 50,000 kids and teens annually in education, service, and recreation opportunities by working in collaboration with nonprofit organizations and federal, state, local, and tribal stakeholders.
In addition, she manages special youth and veteran-focused initiatives. Ernestine serves as the project lead for the Youth Partner Portal, a game-changing system in the federal government. This web-based platform is not only secure and scalable but also revolutionizes the way data is collected and reported on youth, young adults, and veterans conducting conservation projects on public lands through the Public Lands Corps Program. Ernestine led the efforts in developing the national partnership with the Boy & Girls Clubs of America; further, she managed and assisted in the development of the national partnership with the YMCA of the USA to engage kids and teens on public lands. Ernestine has also served in the Directorate of Interpretation, Education, and Volunteers as the national volunteer and youth programs coordinator in Washington, DC. She worked in collaboration with 14 regional and national program managers to oversee more than 300,000 volunteers, who donated over 8 million hours of service annually at that time. Ernestine developed and led one of the largest youth development programs in the National Park Service, the Community Volunteer Ambassador Program, which was formerly known as the Centennial Volunteer Ambassador Program. In this previous role, she provided innovation, planning, implementation, and policy development, which included leading the Director Order-7: Volunteers-In-Parks revision; further, she provided accountability management for the national volunteer and youth programs by working with other program areas, divisions, and NPS partners.
During Ernestine's NPS career, she worked in the divisions of maintenance, natural resources, administration, and interpretation and education, serving at Independence National Historical Park and Valley Forge National Historical Park. She also served as the acting regional volunteer and youth coordinator for the Northeast Region (Region-1), where she developed the new Energy Conservation Corps Program (Youth Conservation Corps Program) in the Northeast region. This program promoted a sustainable building initiative along with energy audits for all covered facilities.
Ernestine has been regionally and nationally recognized for her outstanding contributions to volunteer and youth program development, as well as engagement and partnership deployment. She also received recognition for her out contributions in using her experiences as a U.S. Navy veteran to help solve problems and develop strategies to better connect and engage recent military veterans with NPS opportunities. By working with the National Park Foundation, she coordinated the finalization and release of the Veterans Survey Report.
