Great Basin National Park

Ashley Adams currently serves as the superintendent of Great Basin National Park, a position she has held since mid-February of 2024. Adams came to Great Basin National Park after serving as the deputy superintendent of Nez Perce National Historical Park, Whitman Mission National Historic Site, and Big Hole National Battlefield in the Pacific Northwest.

Adams previously worked for the Bureau of Land Management as the monument manager for Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument in California. She has also worked as a wilderness coordinator for the NPS Wilderness Stewardship national office; served as an NPS national office liaison to the University of California, Merced for the National Parks Institute; worked as a backcountry ranger and trail crew laborer for Glacier National Park; taught a wilderness management course at Duke University, and conducted research on lemurs in Madagascar. 

Adams also managed signature partnerships for Yosemite National Park as the liaison to the City of San Francisco for the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Tuolumne watershed, and as the liaison to the Yosemite Conservancy, the park's official philanthropic partner and cooperating association.

Adams earned a Master of Environmental Management degree from Duke University, where she was selected for a prestigious Doris Duke Conservation Fellows scholarship, and a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Stanford University. 

Adams grew up in Montana with deep roots to the National Park Service; her father has served as a seasonal park ranger in Glacier National Park for over 50 years. She has an enduring love of mountains, wide open spaces, and landscapes off the beaten path. Her favorite activity is to grab her two mischievous dogs and head out into the mountains for a hike, although you might also find her out on a run, enjoying a winter day on cross-country skis, or nose deep in a good book.