Hawaii Volcanoes park
names superintendent
HILO >> The National Park Service has named Cynthia Orlando, a 33-year veteran with ties to Hawaii, as the new superintendent of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Orlando replaces former Superintendent Jim Martin, whose retirement became effective Saturday. She is expected to arrive on the Big Island in March.
"I regard the opportunity to serve at a park in Hawaii as a pinnacle of my career," Orlando said in a statement.
Orlando has been stationed in Washington, D.C., where she has been chief of concessions, overseeing 630 private businesses that are allowed to operate in 125 national parks, the park service said.
The concessions gross more than $800 million in revenue annually, supplying $40 million of that to the park service.
The sole concession at Hawaii Volcanoes is the Volcano House hotel. The Volcano Art Center, which also operates in the park, is not considered a concession because it is a nonprofit organization, park spokeswoman Mardie Lane said.
Orlando attended Leilehua High School in Wahiawa and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She graduated from San Francisco State University with a bachelor's degree in anthropology and archeology.
Her duties since joining the park service have extended to advising the national park systems of Venezuela and Argentina on concessions issues.
Orlando has served as a superintendent twice before, at the Lewis and Clark winter encampment at Fort Clatsop National Memorial in Oregon and at Ebeys Landing National Historical Reserve in Washington.
She also worked as a ranger at Mesa Verde National Park.