The National Park Service (NPS) announced the selection of Rolando Herts, Ph.D. Planning and Public Policy ’11, as superintendent of Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and Freedom Riders National Monument in Alabama, effective Sep. 9.
“We are excited to welcome Rolando as superintendent as he builds on more than a decade of distinguished leadership advancing cultural heritage tourism and education in partnership with the National Park Service,” said Mark Foust, NPS South Atlantic-Gulf Regional Director. “Rolando’s experience developing sites of memory and empowering communities to preserve nationally significant stories will help solidify the foundation of these two relatively new parks.”
Since 2014, Herts has served as the director of The Delta Center for Culture and Learning and executive director of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, a Congressionally designated partnership with the National Park Service. He was previously associate director with the Office of University-Community Partnerships at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where he received the Berkowitz Distinguished Service Award as a Leadership Newark Fellow.
Through community engagement and partnership development, Herts has strengthened collaborations with the National Park Service, the Alliance of National Heritage Areas, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Mississippi Delta Blues Festival Brazil and various regional and community-based organizations. Under his leadership, The Delta Center and Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area received awards and recognitions from the National Park Service, National Humanities Alliance, Mississippi Heritage Trust, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, Delta Business Journal among others.
“I am excited and honored to have been selected for this key leadership role with the National Park Service,” Herts said. “Community engagement is essential to developing authentic cultural heritage tourism especially with civil rights sites. I look forward to collaborating with various communities to further illuminate stories of the Birmingham Civil Rights and Freedom Riders national monuments.”
Herts is a research fellow with Tourism RESET, a multi-university interdisciplinary research initiative focused on race ethnicity and social equity in tourism. He serves on the Association of African American Museums Board of Directors and Advisory Committee for the Center for Southern Culture at University of Mississippi. He previously served on Delta Regional Authority’s Delta Leadership Network Regional Advisory Council Mississippi Blues Commission and Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Services.
Herts holds a Ph.D. in planning and public policy from Rutgers Graduate School-New Brunswick an M.A. in social science from The University of Chicago an B.A. in English from Morehouse College As an Executive Academy Fellow with Delta Regional Authority’s Delta Leadership Institute he earned an executive education certificate in authentic leadership from Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School Government His interests include organizational partnerships holistic cultural heritage development which involves community engaged approaches to tourism planning education storytelling preservation
About Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
Established in 2017 Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument interprets struggle equality civil rights Birmingham Alabama park boundary includes Gaston Motel Kelly Ingram Park 16th Street Baptist Church St Paul United Methodist Church number other historic properties part Birmingham Civil Rights National Register Historic District These properties significant regard civil rights organizing protests occurred downtown Birmingham between 1956 1963
About Freedom Riders National Monument
Established in 2017 Freedom Riders National Monument preserves interprets sites where Mother’s Day 1961 Freedom Riders bus attacked Greyhound Bus Station downtown Anniston Alabama attacked again firebombed six miles away State Highway 202 Freedom Riders small interracial band activists challenging discriminatory laws required separation races interstate travel Images attack appeared hundreds newspapers shocking American public spurring federal government issue regulations banning segregation interstate travel
