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Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy06-10-15 | News

Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy

"This appointment is an absolute privilege, and I am honored to be selected to lead this acclaimed conservancy and share as a partner in the historic renaissance of this exceptional city." "?u Stephanie Crockatt

Stephanie Crockatt, the interim executive director of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy since October 2014, was officially appointed executive director on May 28, 2015. Crockatt replaces Massachusetts native Thomas Herrera-Mishler, who resigned last fall after six years as the conservancy's leader.

A native of Michigan, Crockatt earned a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture with a focus on golf course design from Michigan State University, then received a master's in parks and recreation management.

From 1999 to 2007, she was president and executive director of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tournament Owners Association, an international trade association of corporate title sponsors for the LPGA Tour. She served as tournament co-director for the LPGA Oldsmobile Classic at Walnut Hills Country Club in East Lansing, Michigan from 1995 to 1999.

Crockatt first toured Buffalo and experienced Olmsted's parks when she attended the annual conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2011. She joined the conservancy in June 2014 after seven years as director of external affairs for the University of Georgia College of Environment & Design.

In October, Crockatt played a key role in Delaware Park's selection by the American Planning Association as one of the 2014 Great Places in America. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown recognized Crockatt and 10 other community leaders at the Women's History Month reception in March. She was also featured in the WNED-TV production, "Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing Western New York," which premiered May 5.

It was back in 1868 that Frederick Law Olmsted envisioned for Buffalo a design that became the nation's first complete system of urban parks and parkways. While Olmsted designed parks in nearly every major city in the country, his work in Buffalo represents the first park and parkways designed and built in the U.S., and are considered his best. In partnership with the city, the conservancy is responsible for the care and maintenance of six major parks (Cazenovia, Delaware, Front, Martin Luther King, Jr., Riverside and South), seven parkways and eight landscaped circles, a total of 850 acres.

More than one million people use Buffalo's Olmsted parks each year. The Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy's annual budget is $3.4 million, and each year the city contributes $1.2 million in operating funds, plus capital project support and additional in-kind assistance to the conservancy.