The Essential Role of Parks and Recreation Throughout COVID-19


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During times of crisis, park and recreation professionals have repeatedly proven they are trusted community leaders capable of swiftly providing or supporting a host of rapid emergency response and relief services. These services include food distribution, emergency residential shelter, and safe zones, childcare for essential workers, maintenance and sanitation of public spaces to ensure safety, communications dissemination, leveraging facilities and spaces to support community needs, and scaling other necessary emergency response functions. Park and recreation professionals also manage essential infrastructure, including parks, trails, open spaces, community, and senior centers, pools and cooling centers, as well as countless other tasks that protect, support, and enable the public's physical and mental health. Join three park and recreation directors as they share how their agencies were essential in supporting community health and well-being throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learning Objectives

Following this session, learners will be able to:

  1. Understand practices that are essential in parks and recreation.
  2. Determine how to navigate need and program challenges.

Allison Colman (she/her)

Director of Health

National Recreation and Park Association

Allison Colman is Director of Health at the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). For over a decade, Ms. Colman has led the development and implementation of evidence-based public health initiatives and built cross-sector collaborations to advance innovative, community-driven, systems-change strategies that improve community health and well-being. Her work lies at the intersection of public health, social justice, and social change, with the goal of ensuring that all people have the opportunity to truly thrive.

Lakita Frazier, CPRP (she/her)

Founder & CEO

Women in Parks and Recreation

Lakita Frazier is a Certified Parks and Recreation Professional with over 25 years of experience in organizational leadership, program development, and capital improvement project management. She served as the Executive Director of the Richland County Recreation Commission from July 2018 until February 2022. Lakita served as the director of parks and recreation for Suffolk, Virginia, from 2003 until 2018. During her tenure in Suffolk, Lakita oversaw the department’s Master Plan Update and led the agency’s initial CAPRA Accreditation. She has been a fellow in the American Academy of Parks and Recreation Administration (AAPRA) since 2020.

She currently serves as the CEO and founder of Women in Parks and Recreation (WIPAR), which is committed to providing a positive platform and space for women in the field to collaborate, connect and support each other. In 2021, WIPAR was established as a federally recognized 501c3 nonprofit organization with an online following of over 11,000. 

Lakita actively teaches and mentors and is committed to professional development and lifelong learning, presenting at local, state, and national conferences. She serves as an instructor and a co-chair of NRPA’s Director’s School and a regent for the Revenue Management Development School. Lakita is the immediate Past President of the National Recreation and Parks Ethnic Minority Society and serves on the American Academy of Parks and Recreation Administrator’s Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee.  Lakita has been a member of the Board of Directors for the National Recreation and Parks Association since 2020, as well as a GP Red Advisory Committee and on the National Association of Park Foundations Board of Directors

Kristin Zimmerman

Parks Administrator

Mohave County Parks

Dan West

Director

Broward County Parks and Recreation

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