Early this month, Bernita A. Reese started her tenure as the new director of the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department—the first woman to serve in that role. Reese previously served as an assistant director at CRPD and as director of the Parks & Recreation Department in Huntsville, Alabama.
Director Reese joined Columbus Underground for a remote interview Thursday afternoon. The interview below has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
Jesse Bethea: Can you tell me about the background and experience that you’re bringing to the job of director?
Bernita Reese: I’ve got over 30 years in recreation…It ranges from military recreation, to municipality recreation—small and large—county recreation and then actually nonprofit and private recreation as well. So I’ve been in recreation for quite some time. I’ve been very active at the state level, national level, as well as local levels of recreation and park associations.
JB: And you were director at Huntsville?
BR: Huntsville, Alabama. I was away from Columbus for almost nine months. Just a short period.
JB: How do you think parks and recreation in a place like Huntsville is going to be different from a place like Columbus?
BR: One thing I’ve always said to friends or anyone in the profession—you take what you learn on a small spectrum and you implement it on a larger spectrum. And so Huntsville, being a small city, a smaller city than the city of Columbus, but yet great amenities, great facilities, a lot of activities within the department, you bring some of those ideas and some of those new trends back to the city of Columbus. Some of them will fit, because they’re two different communities, so I can’t expect for one thing to fit into a totally different community, but I do think there are some things we look at that could be implemented here within the city of Columbus.
JB: What would you say are your goals and priorities for your tenure as director?
BR: My first goal starting out is just working with the team and making sure that we have a great working culture within our department. I want to make sure we respect each other, that we’re putting on our best for our residents here within the city. The second thing would be making sure that we’re focusing on, how do we bring better trends and better programs to the city of Columbus? And then the third would be, what is our focal point as far as national recognition? That would probably involve some applying for national awards, as well as national accreditation.
Then I think one of the things we’re also gonna look at within probably the first few years will be looking at a master plan for our department. We had a study of a master plan back in 2014 and so it’s about that time to revisit where our master plan needs to be for our city. Our city has grown since 2014 and so we really need to look at, what are the trends for the city? What are our requirements so that we’re providing the best of service to our residents?
JB: You mentioned in a previous press release the relationship between public parks and public health. And since we’re all focusing a lot more on public health these days, I was wondering if you could tell me how you see that relationship between parks and health.
BR: When we talk about wellness and public health, there are so many components, and it’s team programming and it’s the regular nutrition component, and then you have the physical component. And then there’s mental health. I think a lot of us during this time, the pandemic, not just as adults but as children, we’ve dealt with mental health. And then we look at the pandemic itself. How does that really impact recreation? We’ve had to maybe lessen our participants in our summer camps and in some of our programs. However…we’ve been able to really look at and focus on outdoor programming and then virtual programming, and what does that look like for us?
And then Walk with a Doc, you think about it, you’ve got walking and then you’ve got a doctor there that’s able to give nutritional and health component pieces to a person, lessening maybe the medical issues that they have, how to eat right and focusing more on the individual, whole being. So I do think that recreation goes hand in hand with public health because it’s not just about the pandemic, but it’s about the longevity of good health. So it’s working with our public health here, which we have a great relationship with, and which we will continue.
JB: We’re talking more in communities around the country about equity in public services, equity between different races, equity between different income groups, different neighborhoods. What are some things that you want to do to promote equity in who gets to use the parks and recreation services and who gets the most out of them?
BR: When we talk about equity, it’s one of the Mayor’s priorities, and I want to make sure that as a department, we’re providing the best of equity throughout the city. We have different neighborhoods, we have different economic groups, we have different cultures. However, that doesn’t mean that one should go without being provided the opportunity to share at the best of programming.
One of the things we do is we have PLAY, it’s our scholarship program and that is to make sure that every child is able to play, even when the programming affordability isn’t there for them to pay. So we’re making sure that we’re creating equity opportunities within our program, and it doesn’t start just in our program but it starts even in our hiring, it starts in our interview process.
JB: We’ve seen during extreme weather events like the arctic temperatures we’ve had this week, but then also during heatwaves in the summer, a lot of CRPD recreation centers are opened as heating or cooling stations. As we deal with climate change in the near term, are there things that CRPD needs to do to better prepare to shelter more people, particularly unhoused people, during extreme weather?
BR: There’s always a way, I would say, for improvement. One of the things is our Urban Forestry Master Plan, it talks about, how do we go in and really provide some of those climate change things that we can do with tree canopies? And I think that is a start, of looking at, how do we look at some of the heat issues that we have? As Columbus continues to grow, the growth presents opportunity for us to provide other green areas, and that is with park space, and that is trees within new development, so we’re making sure that it’s not just all concrete and cement, but how do we really make sure that we’re providing some opportunities for some of the climate change issues that we know can make a difference?
JB: I’m glad you brought up the Urban Forestry Plan. Obviously the goal of doubling the tree canopy to 40% is pretty ambitious. I was wondering if you could tell me some of your thoughts about this program and how the city will attain this goal when we’ve had previous programs like Branch Out Columbus that didn’t meet its goal. How are we going to accomplish it this time?
BR: One of the things when you set a goal, your ambition is to reach every goal. However there are things that could trigger to maybe where you don’t reach that goal…So as we talk about parks and streetways and different areas that we are looking at with our tree canopy, is it an ambitious goal? Yes. Do we feel it’s doable and realistic? We do. And so therefore we’re gonna put every effort forward. However, there could be, maybe, another wave of the pandemic and then we can’t control when personnel are out or different things like that happen. Those are issues that are really beyond our control, but we really do set goals on realistic, I would say, restraints and so we’re able to meet those goals.
JB: Looking into the future, what would you like your legacy to be, particularly being the first female director of CRPD?
BR: My legacy is really ensuring that we have a great working team, we work together, and that I’m able to provide a fair, equitable system throughout the city of Columbus. I think to me that is one thing that stands strong, but there’s some other things there. We talked about accreditation, and some of those other goals. But I do think when you’re able to ensure that you have people who are enjoying working in the system, to me that’s the most important thing, that we create that environment amongst our personnel.
JB: Is there anything you’d like to mention that I did not ask about?
BR: You know, we’re growing daily. Our summer camp programs are growing, we’re back to probably about more than 50% of what we were three years ago in 2019. We’re even looking at, how do we provide more technology opportunities with a departmental website? So there’s a lot that’s going on internally, but yet we want to make sure that we’re providing the best of service to every person here within the city of Columbus.
For more information, visit columbusrecparks.com.