OMAHA -- Kevin Eads, a 24-year veteran of the National Park Service, has been selected as superintendent of Pea Ridge National Military Park after the retirement of John Scott.
Eads, now chief of resource management at the park, will begin his new assignment March 8, according to a National Park Service news release.
"We are proud to have Kevin as the next superintendent," said Patricia Trap, acting Midwest Regional director. "His familiarity with the park resources and his proven dedication to this park will be a tremendous asset. He is well known and well respected throughout the community, and has fostered partnerships with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission and the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative to continue restoration of the landscapes within the park."
Eads, who holds a bachelor's degree in wildlife biology from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma and a master's degree in Forest Resources from the University of Arkansas at Monticello, began his National Park Service career at George Washington Carver National Monument, according to the release.
He also has worked at George Washington's Birthplace National Monument, and completed detail assignments at Petersburg National Battlefield and Booker T. Washington National Monument. As a resource manager at Arkansas Post National Memorial, he developed the park's GIS database, conducted multiple studies, developed a cooperative agreement with the University of Arkansas at Monticello, and received the Natural Resource Trish Patterson Student Conservation Association Award for developing the park into a natural laboratory for resource issues, the release stated.
As the chief of resource management at Pea Ridge National Military Park, "I have lived and worked with the local communities of Northwest Arkansas for the past 12 years," Eads said in the release. "As the new superintendent, I am privileged to remain at the park and to continue working with great staff, incredible park neighbors, partners and the communities of northwest Arkansas in the restoration and preservation of one of the most pivotal, and intact, Civil War battlefields in the United States."
Eads enjoys spending time with his family, advising on Odyssey of the Mind projects, fishing, gardening, hiking and hunting. He and wife LaDena, an assistant principal at Springdale High School, have been married for 23 years and have two sons, Chad and Hunter.
NW News on 02/11/2015