New Superintendents At
Brad Bennett took over as superintendent of Andersonville on July 5. He has served in multiple management posts during his 18-year National Park Service career, including as acting superintendent of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in 2008 and as acting superintendent of Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park in 2001. He also held several positions in Alaska Region, beginning in 2002 and was superintendent of Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, manager of the interagency Alaska Public Lands Information Center and most recently was the Alaska Region’s chief of interpretation and education. Bennett grew up in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, attended the University of Southern California and was a paralegal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and volunteer coordinator for the non-profit Mountains Education Program. He started his National Park Service career in 1991 as a Student Conservation Association volunteer at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. He also was assigned to the Harpers Ferry Center where he worked on several National Park Service interpretive media projects, including Manassas National Battlefield Park. Randy Wester became the Fort Pulaski superintendent on May 10. A native of Missouri, he served in the U.S. Navy from 1964 to 1968 and is a Vietnam veteran. He graduated from Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University) in 1974 and completed graduate work at the University of Missouri. Wester joined the National Park Service in 1979 as a seasonal park technician followed by ranger positions at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace, Padre Island, Golden Spike, USS Arizona Memorial and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. He was chief ranger at the USS Arizona Memorial from 1995 to 1999 and site manager of Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site from 1999 to 2001. He most recently was superintendent of Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. His wife is Mary Beth Wester, superintendent of Fort Frederica National Monument on St. Simons Island, Ga.
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