Jennifer Hardin, who will become the superintendent of the Saugus Iron Works and Salem Maritime National Historical Sites on Oct. 23, has spent much of her career focused on building relationships.
An anthropologist by training, Hardin, the current chief of external affairs Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah and Arizona as well as Rainbow Bridge National Monument in Utah, began her career with the park service in 2009 at Yosemite National Park.
It was there that she began her work crafting both internal and external partnerships to further the National Park Service’s mission.
After Yosemite, she spent four years in Alaska beginning in 2015 as part of a Federal Subsistence Management Program, continuing the work she began years prior — building relationships with native tribes, non-government organizations, and land management agencies.
Her tour at Glen Canyon began in 2019, and as chief of external affairs, she has been able to work with “all of our external partners” including over 150 businesses that provide services in the park, elected officials, local counties, and tribes associated with the park. Hardin also handles the park’s public affairs, working with media partners and also working on planning and compliance with “all the other federal agencies and state agencies.”
But, she said, the root of all of the stops along the way to her new position as superintendent can be traced back to that idea of building partnerships to help bolster the National Park Service and its mission.
“It’s really what is my passion is to work with … teams to come up with creative solutions to really complex problems or issues and I’m really grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had to not only work with our partners, but learn from them and you know, share in these in the successes and then the challenges too,” Hardin said. “That’s what really attracted me to the Salem and Saugus position was I was aware that there are lots of communities, lots of entities, lots of folks involved in the work that takes place at Salem and Saugus and the team at those two park units really works with a broad range of entities to accomplish all of their amazing work.”
“I’m really happy to have been chosen to join that team and kind of jump into those existing collaborations and see how I can help move things forward and develop new initiatives with all the rest of the folks there,” she continued.
Part of the attraction of taking over the Saugus and Salem sites for Hardin was their history.
“What interests me is that Salem and Saugus are just steeped in history, they really have important things to say about our story as Americans in the United States,” Hardin said in a telephone interview. “My background is in anthropology and sort of looking at how the colonial period speaks to the present; and so, I was, of course, really interested in that as well because of all of the incredible colonial history that is located not only in Salem and Saugus, but throughout New England.”
As she looks ahead to taking over the two parks, Hardin said initially she has to take a bit of a back seat as she gets to know the area.
“The first thing I want to do is be in listening mode and learn everything I can about the communities and the park units, and an immediate goal is to really support and enhance all of the efforts that are already ongoing that are already underway in and around the park units always with an eye to working collectively to explore those new opportunities to promote the sites and the communities that they’re situated in and to develop those future goals together,” Hardin said, explaining that much of her work can’t get going until she is physically in the area.
Having grown up on the East Coast, Hardin said she is “quite familiar” with the Eastern Seaboard. But, she said she has not visited either park in some time.
In a statement, National Park Service Regional Director Gay Vietzke praised Hardin’s relationship building skills.
“Jennifer comes with a deep set of skills developing and working with partnerships,” said Vietzke. “She has worked closely with elected officials, tribal governments, communities, businesses and stakeholders to accomplish shared goals with the NPS. Her ability to build strong working relationships and her collaborative leadership style are some of what makes her a perfect choice for the parks.”
Mostly, Hardin said, she is looking forward to getting to work.
“I’m just really excited to be there and to join the team,” she said.
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].
