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Interviewees
Garrison, Giles
Accessibility Note
Content is digitally accessible 2024.
Interviewer
Bowden, Eric
Description
Giles Garrison is the Superintendent of James River Park System, a City of Richmond park division, comprised of over 600 acres of urban trail, natural wetlands, historic works of civic architecture, and native inhabitants including osprey, bald eagle, sturgeon, and longnose gar to name a few. Previous to this role, Giles served as the City of Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation & Community Facilities workforce development program supervisor and community engagement liaison. Before joining the City, she was the director of Groundwork RVA, a nonprofit dedicated to helping teens develop the skills to make positive changes to green spaces in their communities. A Richmonder from the beginning, Giles attended Governor’s School and Williams College and received a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is thrilled to be raising her one year old within a short walk of JRPS with her husband Evan.
I this interview, Garrison speaks about her childhood in Richmond, growing up in the Forest Hill and Ginter Park neighborhoods, enjoying the parks as a child and teen as a “river rat”, how those experiences have impacted her work as Superintendent of JRPS, the differing ways people experience the parks, her thoughts on environmental conservation, educating the public and elected officials about environmental needs, the amount of labor it takes to fund parks projects, balancing conserving ecosystems and creating parks space that can handle large amount visitors, taking business calls on the trails, building avenues for communication between JRPS and the public, how historic districting can impact which history is remembered, future plans for natural resource management growth at JRPS, and whether parks employees are park managers or advocates.
Topical Subject
James River (Va.); Outdoor recreation; Outdoor recreation for children; Outdoor recreation--Environmental aspects; Trails; Environmentalism; Parks; Parks--Maintenance; Education parks; Conservation
City/Location
Richmond (Va.)
Genre
oral histories (literary genre)
Local Genre
oral history; sound recording; text
Type
Sound; Text
Digital Format
audio/mp3
Language
eng
Rights Statement URL
Rights
This material is protected by copyright, and copyright is held by Giles Garrison. You are permitted to use this material in any way that is permitted by copyright. In addition, this material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Acknowledgment of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is required.
Collection
James River Park System Oral History Project
Contributors
James River Park System
Source
Giles Garrison interview (2024-04-09), James River Park System Oral Histories, M 569, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University.
File Name
jrpsoh_garrisongiles_interview.mp3
Disciplines
Environmental Education | Public History | Social History | United States History