Deb served as CEO of the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park from 2002-2025. As the park’s friends group, the Conservancy connects the community with the park in many ways, including managing the park’s education, volunteer, and cultural arts programs. It also operates three stores, manages events in the park, and raises money for park projects. Under Deb’s leadership the Conservancy grew its budget from $1 million to $8 million and its staff from 24 to 100. Previously she was the director of Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center, the overnight learning center managed jointly by the Conservancy and the National Park Service.
A national leader in the National Park Service partnership community, Deb is a Past President of the National Park Friends Alliance, the network of over 200 national park nonprofit partner groups. Deb also served on the NPS Education Advisory Committee from 2012 – 2016. She is a past president of the Environmental Education Council of Ohio. Currently Deb is assisting the National Park Foundation in their collective campaign for America’s national parks and is managing several special projects for them.
Deb has a B.A. from Miami University and an M.S. in natural resources from the University of Michigan, with a specialization in environmental education. Her early career was spent as a camp director and environmental education program leader. Deb serves on the Boards of the Near West Theatre and Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry in Cleveland, and on the Ohio Advisory Board of the Trust for Public Land. Deb has been recognized as a Woman of Note by Crain’s Cleveland, by the GAR Foundation with their annual recognition of nonprofit leaders, and as a Rainmaker by Northern Ohio Live magazine. She is a violist in the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra and loves to be on a bike, in a kayak, or hiking the trails of NE Ohio.
