Park Superintendent to Guide Visitor and Resource Protection New Associate Director is Decorated Veteran and Former Law Enforcement Officer

National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis today named Cameron (Cam) Sholly as the Associate Director for Visitor and Resource Protection.
As associate director, Sholly will manage a $125 million annual budget and a portfolio that includes 20 service-wide program areas including law enforcement, security and emergency services, fire and aviation management, risk management and occupational safety, public health services, regulations and special park uses, wilderness stewardship and the National Park Service component at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
“I am excited to have Cam on my senior management team,” Jarvis said.  “Cam has a great blend of experiences within the National Park Service and in outside organizations.  He also has a proven record of achievement in managing large field operations and headquarters programs.   His expertise in visitor and resource protection will help us set a positive trajectory for those programs as we move into our second century.”
For the past three years, Sholly has been superintendent of Natchez Trace Parkway where he managed a three-state national parkway corridor that traverses 41 county and municipal jurisdictions and was the eighth most visited national park in the country.  During his tenure, the parkway completed a multi-million dollar rehabilitation of the Meriwether Lewis death and burial site.  The parkway took part in the largest Native American repatriation in the Choctaw Nation’s history, and energized dormant plans for a joint tribal heritage center with the Chickasaw Nation.
Sholly also oversaw completion of new resource management mapping system and completed the parkway’s first business and operations plan.  In 2011, he was named superintendent of the year for the Southeast Region of the National Park Service.
From 2005 to 2009, Sholly was the deputy associate director and chief of staff for visitor and resource protection in Washington.  He was assigned on detail as special assistant to the director in 2008.  From 2002 to 2005, Sholly was the chief of ranger operations in Yosemite National Park.  From 1997 to 2002, Sholly worked for the California Highway Patrol where he served in a variety of operational and administrative assignments including serving as an instructor at the CHP Academy in Sacramento California.
“Serving as the associate director is a tremendous privilege,” Sholly said.
“I look forward to working closely with the incredible National Park Service team, both in Washington and around the service.”
Sholly began his NPS career in Yellowstone National Park in 1990 and entered his first supervisory position in 1994 in Yosemite National Park.
Sholly served in the U.S. Army Infantry from 1987 to 1989 and was re-activated and deployed to Operation Desert Storm in 1991 where he received the National Defense Medal, Kuwait Liberation Medal and U.S. Army Achievement Medal.
Sholly received his undergraduate degree in organizational management at St. Mary’s College of California and earned a master’s degree at Duke University in environmental management with concentrations in environmental economics and law and policy.  He is also a graduate of the Harvard University Senior Executive Fellows Program, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the California Highway Patrol Academy and the FBI National Academy.
Cam and Jill Sholly have been married for 16 years and they have one son.
They will move to Washington in September.