The hardest job Ed Stierli ever had was his first — teaching middle schoolers in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. But the skills he cultivated shaping young minds in a chaotic environment may come in handy with his new role: influencing politicians and members of Congress.
Stierli recently was named vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, the leading parks advocacy group in Washington, after more than four years heading up the organization’s mid-Atlantic region. Stierli’s promotion to chief in-house lobbyist follows the exit earlier this year of Kristen Brengel, the group’s longtime voice on Capitol Hill and interlocutor with presidential administrations.
The job is critical for the organization as it faces a challenging period. NPCA has been at fisticuffs with the Trump administration over cuts to park staff and its penchant for spending park fee dollars on grandiose Washington projects favored by the president.
But Stierli said he’s hoping to find common ground with the administration on issues they share concerns about — like a more than $24 billion backlog of deferred maintenance — even as his organization pushes the administration on disagreements over how to handle park budgets, programs and growing crowds of visitors.
