National Park Service Northeast Regional Director Dennis R. Reidenbach has named Tina Orcutt superintendent of Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore, Maryland and Hampton National Historic Site in Towson, Maryland. Orcutt currently serves as superintendent of Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls and Waterloo, New York. Reidenbach also named Tammy Duchesne as the new superintendent of Women’s Rights National Historical Park. Both Orcutt and Duchesne will assume their new duties in August, 2011.
"Tina has done an outstanding job in her current position," said Reidenbach, "including working on major preservation projects like the rehabilitation of the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls. Her strong background in cultural resources, interpretation and park management, makes her the ideal leader for the home of The Star-Spangled Banner, and to tell the stories of those who owned, and those who were enslaved at Hampton."
A 23 year veteran of the National Park Service, Orcutt began her career while a student in the NPS Junior Fellowship Program, serving at Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site in Pennsylvania. Subsequent assignments included Colonial National Historical Park, Virginia; Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, Louisiana; and Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota, where she served as acting superintendent.
Following a move to Booker T. Washington National Monument, Virginia, where she was chief of interpretation and resources management, she did a detail assignment in the NPS budget office in Washington, D.C. Prior to her assignment at Women’s Rights, she served at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, Maryland, as chief of resources management and as acting deputy superintendent.
Duchesne is currently the management assistant to the Northeast Regional Director’s Office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a leadership training position designed to prepare promising leaders as park superintendents. Over the last two years her responsibilities included leading the regional Workplace Enrichment initiative, participating in program reviews, and assisting the regional leadership council. Duchesne also participated in a month long detail as the management assistant at Weir Farm National Historic Site in Connecticut, and served in a two month detail as chief of the regional partnership office.
"Tammy’s two years in this developmental position certainly gave her a wealth of knowledge about the programs with the National Park Service Northeast Region," said Reidenbach. "That experience, coupled with a great work ethic, makes her ideally qualified to lead Women’s Rights National Historical Park."
Duchesne came into the NPS through a Student Career Experience Program appointment while working and studying in the far Pacific. She served as Curator and Chief of Cultural Resources for both War in the Pacific National Historical Park in Guam and also American Memorial Park in Saipan for more than six years.
Duchesne also served as Secretary and Chair of the Pacific West Region’s Cultural Resources Advisory Committee and was a founding member of the Cultural Resources Emergency Response Team which deployed to American Samoa with the Western Incident Management Team following the tsunami that struck the island in 2009. Immediately before leaving the Pacific, Duchesne served as Chief of Resources in a four month detail to Sitka National Historical Park in Alaska.
Women’s Rights National Historical Park commemorates the story of the First Women’s Rights Convention and preserves historical structures associated with it in Seneca Falls and Waterloo, New York. All public tours and programs are free and open to the public.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
