The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the country. Non-healthcare benefits include disability compensation,vocational rehabilitation,education assistance,home loans,and life insurance. The VA also provides burial and memorial benefits to eligible veterans and family members at 135 national cemeteries.
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building in Washington,D.C. that manages all national parks,most national monuments,and other natural,historical,and recreational properties with various title designations. The United States Congress created the agency on August 25,1916 through the National Park Service Organic Act.
Drakes Estero is an expansive estuary in the Point Reyes National Seashore of Marin County on the Pacific coast of northern California in the United States,approximately 25 miles (40 km) northwest of San Francisco.
The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is a public graduate school operated by the United States Navy and located in Monterey,California.
Richard Henry Carmona is an American physician,nurse,police officer,public health administrator,and politician. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the seventeenth Surgeon General of the United States. Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002,Carmona left office at the end of July 2006 upon the expiration of his term. After leaving office,Carmona was highly critical of the Bush administration for suppressing scientific findings which conflicted with the Administration's ideological agenda.
James David Watkins was a United States Navy admiral and former Chief of Naval Operations who served as the United States Secretary of Energy during the George H. W. Bush administration,also chairing U.S. government commissions on HIV/AIDS and ocean policy. Watkins also served on the boards of various companies and other nongovernmental organizations and as the co-chair of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative.
A national recreation area (NRA) is a protected area in the United States established by an Act of Congress to preserve enhanced recreational opportunities in places with significant natural and scenic resources. There are 40 NRAs,which emphasize a variety of activities for visitors,including hiking,camping,boating,fishing,swimming,biking,horseback riding,and wildlife viewing,in areas that include multiple-use management for both conservation and limited utilization of natural resources. They have diverse features and contexts,being established around reservoirs,in urban areas,and within forests. Due to their size,diversity of activities,and proximity to population centers,NRAs are among the most visited units of the National Park System,with six among the thirty most visited sites.
The powers of the president of the United States include those explicitly granted by Article II of the United States Constitution as well as those granted by Acts of Congress,implied powers,and also a great deal of soft power that is attached to the presidency.
The National Center for Medical Intelligence is a component of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The role of NCMI is described in DoD Instruction 6420.01. Headquartered at Fort Detrick,Maryland,NCMI's mission is to monitor,track and assess health events that could negatively impact the health of U.S. military and civilian populations.
Sylvia Mary Burwell is an American government and non-profit executive who has been the 15th president of American University since June 1,2017. She is the first woman to serve as the university's president. She earlier served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. President Barack Obama nominated Burwell on April 11,2014. Burwell's nomination was confirmed by the Senate on June 5,2014,by a vote of 78–17. She served as Secretary until the end of the Obama administration. Previously,she had been the Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget from 2013 to 2014.
James Preston Delgado is a maritime archaeologist,historian,maritime preservation expert,author,television host,and explorer.
Waldo Gifford Leland was an American historian and archivist whose work for the Carnegie Institution and the Library of Congress was instrumental in the founding of the National Archives. He also served in leadership roles in a variety of historical and archival societies,including the American Council of Learned Societies,Society of American Archivists,National Park Service,and the FDR Library.
The History of the National Register of Historic Places began in 1966 when the United States government passed the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA),which created the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Upon its inception,the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) became the lead agency for the Register. The Register has continued to grow through two reorganizations,one in the 1970s and one in 1980s and in 1978 the NRHP was completely transferred away from the National Park Service,it was again transmitted to the NPS in 1981.
James Benjamin Peake was the sixth United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs,serving from 2007 to 2009. In 2004,he retired from a 38-year United States Army career. He also served as the 40th Surgeon General of the United States Army.
Robert Sterling Yard was an American writer,journalist,and wilderness activist. Born in Haverstraw,New York,Yard graduated from Princeton University and spent the first twenty years of his career in the editing and publishing business. In 1915,he was recruited by his friend Stephen Mather to help publicize the need for an independent national park agency. Their numerous publications were part of a movement that resulted in legislative support for a National Park Service (NPS) in 1916. Yard served as head of the National Parks Educational Committee for several years after its conception,but tension within the NPS led him to concentrate on non-government initiatives. He became executive secretary of the National Parks Association in 1919.
Frank Graham Klotz served as Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security and Administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy. He was confirmed for the position on April 8,2014,and retired on January 20,2018.
Ronald H. Walker is an American executive. Walker served in the administration of President Richard Nixon,first as the first Director of the White House Office of Presidential Advance,and later as Director of the National Park Service (1972–1975). Walker went on to become a senior partner at Korn/Ferry International,President of the Richard Nixon Foundation,and is currently the Chairman of the Board of the Nixon Foundation.
Roger George Kennedy was an American polymath whose career included banking,television production,historical writing,and museum administration,the last as director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History,before the Bill Clinton administration selected him to head the National Park Service in 1993. He was especially concerned about expanding the service's educational role and moved to enlarge its presence beyond the parks via the Internet.
The National Park Service underwent an intensive review of its responsibilities and prospects for the future during its 75th anniversary celebration in 1991. It culminated its efforts in October 1991 with a symposium in Vail,Colo. that including several hundred participants from both within and outside the NPS. The gathering,the Oct. 10,1991 session of which was officially a public meeting advertised in the Federal Register of Sept. 19,1991,resulted in six strategic objectives and the identification of a variety of issues and recommendations,which were published in a book titled National Parks for the 21st Century:The Vail Agenda. Although the meeting took place during the administration of Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan and NPS Director James Ridenour,with the book itself published under the leadership of Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Director Roger Kennedy,who wrote the foreword and preface,the Vail agenda and vision remains today as a directional tool for the NPS.
Since 1872 the United States National Park System has grown from a single,public reservation called Yellowstone National Park to include 430 natural,historical,recreational,and cultural areas throughout the United States,its territories,and island possessions. These areas include National Parks,National Monuments,National Memorials,National Military Parks,National Historic Sites,National Parkways,National Recreation Areas,National Seashores,National Scenic Riverways,and National Scenic Trails.
