PEOPLE - industry news and appointments

Parks & Recreation, June, 1999

APPOINTMENTS

St. Louis County (Mo.) executive Buzz Westfall has appointed Genie E. Zakrzewski, CLP county parks director. Zakrzewski served as acting director earlier this year following the departure of Robert Hall, CLP.

"St. Louis County operates one of the finest parks systems in the country," Westfall said," and I am very pleased that Genie Zakrzewski has agreed to become the parks director. Her experience in St. Louis County, both with the county and elsewhere, rode her uniquely qualified for the position."

Before joining St. Louis County as deputy director of parks program services in January 1996, Zakrzewski served as director of parks and recreation for the cities of Crestwood and Rock Hill. A member of the National Recreation and Park Association's Board of Trustees, she has received numerous professional accolades including the Missouri Park and Recreation Association's Fellow Award and NRPA's Dottie Mullen Arts and Humanities Award.

Daryl Faber has been named director of parks, arts and recreation for the city of Burien, Wash. Relying upon 16 years of experience in parks and recreation management with the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma and the city of Edmonds, Faber will work with the newly appointed parks board to prepare the city's long-range master parks plan.

After serving 17 years with the Austin (Texas) Parks and Recreation Department, Janet A. Martin, CLP, M.Ed. has been selected as the recreation services manager for the city of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department.

Dan Wyers, CLP has been named director of parks and recreation of Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario. A 1983 graduate of Northern Michigan University, Wyers will replace Gordon "Bud" Clarke.

AWARDS

Fran P. Mainella, CLP, director of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Recreation and Parks, recently received the National Society of Park Resources William Penn Mott Jr. Award for Excellence. The award is recognized in the recreation and parks profession as a distinction of great achievement in parks, recreation, and environmental education.

Jerry Hover, director of Kansas State Parks, nominated Mainella, pointing to her leadership of the division and her prominence in national recreation and parks organizations. 'This is one of the greatest honors of my career," Mainella said. "I am so grateful to Jerry Hover and the National Society of Park Resources for this recognition."

The National Association of County Parks and Recreation Officials has announced that Joan G. Rokus, Leesburg (Va.) district supervisor, and Cindy Welsh, director of the Loudoun County (Va.) Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services, will be honored at NACPRO's annual awards banquet July 17 in St. Louis, Mo.

Rokus has been selected as one of two individuals nationwide to receive NACPRO's Outstanding Public Official Award. This award is presented annually to an elected or appointed federal, state, or local official who has contributed significantly to the benefit of county-level parks, recreation, leisure services, or open-space programs.

Welsh will receive NACPRO's Fellow Award, which is presented to a professional who is currently employed at the county level of parks and recreation.

Graphic designer Ruth Bielobocky of Ion Design in Frederick, Md., has won a pair of awards for work recently completed for the National Recreation and Park Association.

Bielobocky's "Go for it" brochure for NRPA's National Programs office won a Best of Category award from the Printing and Graphic Communications Association. Her work with JumpStart, a classroom physical activity program, earned Ion Design an Addy from the American Advertising Federation.