About me
Robert G. Stanton, former Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the U. S. Department of the Interior( 2009-2014)and former Director of the National Park Service (1997-2001) is a Scholar -In-Residence at the University of Missouri-St Louis and a private consultant in natural and cultural resource preservation and management. Appointed by President Barack Obama in 2014, he is also a former member of the Advisory Council of Historic Preservation, an independent federal agency where he served for six years.
An experienced public administrator, Mr.Stanton was nominated in 1997 by President Bill Clinton and was unanimously confirmed by the U. S. Senate as the 15th Director of the National Park Service (NPS) where he served until the end of the Clinton Administration. He was the first NPS Director to undergo confirmation hearings before the U. S. Senate and the first African American to serve in this leadership capacity since the agency was established in 1916. Under his leadership and through the work of a dedicated staff, volunteers and a wide range of partners, major resource preservation and visitor service programs were inaugurated including the Natural Resource Challenge( a major action plan to revitalize and expand the NPS natural resource program), co- sponsorship of Save America’s Treasures Program, the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit Program, Public Lands Corps, Diversity Action Plan and the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
Starting as a seasonal park ranger at Grand Teton National Park in 1962, Mr. Stanton has dedicated his life work to improving the preservation, commemoration and management of the nation’s rich and diverse natural and cultural heritage.Over the course of his 35-year NPS career, he held key management and executive positions including park management assistant, superintendent, deputy regional director, regional director, and in the Washington Office assistant director for park operations, associate director for park management and operations and director. He worked consistently to increase youth participation in conservation and improve diversity, equity and inclusion in the workforce and public programs.He supported new parks and programs that recognized the struggles, sacrifices, courage, leadership and contributions of women and people of color in the development and collective history of the nation.
Prior to returning to Federal service in 2009, he served as a visiting professor at Yale, Howard and Texas A&M universities and served in leadership roles with a number of civic and conservation organizations. From 2001-2003, he served as the International Union for Conservation and Nature( IUCN) Ambassador for the Fifth World Parks Congress held in 2003 in Durban ,South Africa. Mr. Stanton is a life member of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
He has been recognized nationally for his leadership in public service and resource stewardship including the U. S. Department of the Interior Distinguished Service Award; the National Council of Negro Women Distinguished Service Award; the Student Conservation Association’s Founder’s Award; the National Parks and Conservation Association William Penn Mott Leadership Award; IUCN’s Fred Packard International Park Merit Award; the National Park Foundation Charles Young Diversity Leadership Award; and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Living Legacy Award. He has been awarded five honorary doctorate degrees.
Cited in a wife range of news media, technical and professional publications, Mr. Stanton has participated in major national and international conferences including the Fifth World Parks Congress (Durban, South Africa 2003), First World Conference on Cultural Parks( Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado 1984), and the Second World Parks Congress( Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 1972). He is a co-founder of the World Protected Areas Leadership Forum.
A native of Ft. Worth, Texas, Mr. Stanton grew up in Mosier Valley, one of the oldest communities in Texas founded shortly after the U. S. Civil War. He earned his Bachelor’ of Science degree at Huston- Tillotson University and did his graduate work at Boston University and George Washington University. He and his wife Janet make their home in Fairfax Station, Virginia
