Flynn leaving Shenandoah Park after 11 years
Jennifer Flynn, since January 2017 the Superintendent of Shenandoah National Park and simultaneously Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park, will soon depart the Luray headquarters to fill a top-level position in Washington, D.C.
An official announcement detailing Flynn’s new post, as well as her Shenandoah departure date, will be forthcoming, this newspaper is told. Her exact new position was not revealed.
Prior to Flynn’s appointment as the park’s superintendent, she was Shenandoah’s deputy superintendent starting in 2009, at which time she was responsible for all park operations.
During her tenure she has valued the importance of community engagement and has often appeared at public events in Rappahannock County.
In her three decades with the National Park Service, Flynn has worked in six national parks, albeit those assignments barely touch her impressive career.
Prior to her appointment at Shenandoah, she managed the National Park
Service’s Basic Law Enforcement Academy at the Georgia-based Federal Law Enforcement Training Center; she was the Chief Ranger of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park; and she was a federal law enforcement officer at Grand Canyon National Park, the Natchez Trace National Parkway, Yosemite National Park and Cape Cod National Seashore.
In addition, Flynn has been an emergency medical technician, structural firefighter, wildland firefighter, high angle search and rescue technician, swift water rescue technician, jailer, dispatcher, and fee manager.
She has also served as the Operations Chief on National Park Service Incident Management Teams and has responded to incidents including Hurricane Katrina, U.S. Presidential visits, Fourth of July at Mount Rushmore, and other planned events.
Her husband, Mike Flynn, has been a park ranger at Manassas National Battlefield Park, among other posts in his career.