KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash is promoting from within to fill the deputy superintendent position.
Cash said Monday that Alan Sumeriski has been selected as the deputy superintendent. Alan has served as the Facility Management Division chief since 2007 and overseen multiple special projects in the park. Sumeriski has been serving as acting deputy.
“Alan is a well-respected senior leader in the National Park Service with over 30 years of experience in managing some of the most complex operations in the National Park Service and I’m honored to select him as the next deputy superintendent of the Smokies,” Cash said. “As acting deputy superintendent, Alan has consistently provided strong and innovative parkwide leadership to help us meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.”
Sumeriski takes over for Clay Jordan who left in November to become the superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in Central California.
Sumeriski has served the National Park Service across the country including leadership positions at Yosemite, Yellowstone, Cuyahoga Valley, and Olympic national parks.
He also served as the acting deputy regional director for the Southeast Region for four months in 2014 and as the chief of Facility Management for the Southeast Region in 2012 for five months where he oversaw park operations for 68 parks.
In the Smokies, Sumeriski has overseen the completion of the Foothills Parkway’s “missing link” in 2018, construction of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and Collections Preservation Center, $100 million worth of infrastructure improvements through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds in 2009, and has helped secure funds for the rehabilitation of Park Headquarters, repaving of Cades Cove Loop Road, and safety improvements for one of the most heavily traveled roads in the NPS along Foothills Parkway Spur between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.
Alan is also working to secure funding for repaving the Foothills Parkway and designing rehabilitation for the North District Maintenance Facilities through the Great American Outdoor Act.
