Our Communitive Interpretive Staff

In the 2016 the National Park Service staff at Nicodemus was reduced to just two employees, a need for assistance at the Visitor Center was urgent. We entered a modification agreement with the Park Service to provide a community interpreter to assist Park Ranger, Phyllis Howard at the Visitor Center. This gave us our first opportunity to participate directly with NPS to tell our story. Descendant, Tina Conway (granddaughter of Charlesetta Bates), was hired to work part-time for six months. The following six months, descendant, LueCreasea Horne (granddaughter of LuElla Holmes) was hired to replace Tina. In October 2017 (government fiscal year)we entered into a five year cooperative agreement to provide our staff to run the Visitor Center, and Park Ranger, Phyllis Howard was eventually moved to Topeka to work at Brown V. Board of Education. The first year of this agreement was challenging in that it was hurry up and wait. We still feel like we are waiting. The agreement is good in that we are finally telling our story to the public, but the lack of NPS presence and support beyond limited funding for staff is daunting. We are challenged to re-think and determine what is the best from both worlds. We are meeting this challenge head on as we continue to provide interpretive services to our visitors.

Currently our staff included Angela Bates, as part-time manager, and 3 full time community interpreters, they are: LueCreasea Horne, Supervisor, Karla Adams and Heather Alexander.