MPNHP Superintendent Wendy Berhman

NPS News:

DENVER, Colo. – National Park Service (NPS) Acting Regional Director Kate Hammond announced the selection of Wendy Berhman as the new superintendent for Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

The park includes three sites at Hanford, Wash.; Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, Tenn., and is administered through a collaborative partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE).

Berhman has worked for the National Park Service for more than 30 years, most recently as program planner for the NPS Washington Office. She began her new assignment today.

“Wendy has vast experience working with both long-range and strategic planning,” Hammond said. “Her commitment to stakeholder and employee engagement and partnerships, her expertise in visitor use management and tourism, and her passion for the Manhattan Project story will be excellent assets in the park’s next chapter.”

Berhman is responsible for the daily operations and staff at each of the three park sites. Managed in partnership with the DOE, the park preserves and interprets the nationally significant historic sites, stories and legacies associated with the top-secret race to develop an atomic weapon during World War II.

“I am honored to have been selected as the Manhattan Project National Historical Park superintendent,” Berhman said. “The legacy of the Manhattan Project is both enormous and complex, and I look forward to working in partnership with the Department of Energy to administer the park. I am excited to work with the park team, Tribes, local communities, and partners to enhance the visitor experience by expanding park programming to share underrepresented narratives and history and expand local and regional tourism opportunities.”

Berhman has served as a Planner in the NPS Washington Office of Park Planning and Special Studies for the last 11 years. Additionally, she has previously worked in facilities, construction management, commercial services and planning at the national, regional and park levels. She earned a master’s degree in urban and environmental planning from University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree in architecture (historic preservation emphasis) from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Berhman and her husband reside in East Denver with their twin 17-year-old son and daughter. She succeeds Kris Kirby, who served in the position for six years before accepting a position as associate state director for the Bureau of Land Management Wyoming State Office.