Catherine Nagel

Catherine Nagel has led City Parks Alliance since 2004, growing the nonprofit organization from its inception to an internationally recognized learning and advocacy network. Today City Parks Alliance provides top-quality educational programs for professionals, spurs cutting-edge research, and brings together a broad base of champions as a voice for urban parks. Under Catherine’s leadership, City Parks Alliance has worked with mayors to permanently fund federal legislation for environmental conservation and leverage more than $750 million to build and restore urban parks in distressed communities.

She has collaborated with practitioners and researchers at RAND Corporation, Georgia Tech, and Urban Institute to advance program and funding strategies for parks and green infrastructure, strengthened knowledge and impact of cross-sector and public-private governance models for urban parks, inspired the formation of urban park-focused organizations globally, and connected a range of leaders from government, non-profits, academia, the private sector, and philanthropy. Catherine has also held leadership positions with the National Association for Olmsted Parks, Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia, Greater Philadelphia First, and Nippon Television Network, and is a board member of the Rock Creek Conservancy.

Catherine received degrees from Bucknell University (BA) and University of Pennsylvania (MLA), studied at Tokyo’s Sophia University, and completed the Executive Leadership Program at Stanford University School of Business. She enjoys hiking through Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC, and visiting Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, especially in the spring for the Cherry Blossom Festival, a cultural landscape project she launched that continues to inform her work today.

Contact: [email protected]