Lee Ann Shenefiel is a strong advocate for the outdoors. While attending the College of William and Mary, she interned for Fairfax County Park Authority and now is operations manager at Lake Accotink Park in Springfield. She is this week's People Profile.
Number of years in the community. Four years.
Family: Two formerly feral cats, Smudge (1.5-years-old) and Chamberlain (4-years-old).
Education: B.A. from College of William and Mary.
What was your first job? Substitute teacher.
Current job/primary occupation: Operations manager at Lake Accotink Park (Fairfax County Park Authority).
Activities/interests/hobbies: Visiting museums/historic sites and reading.
What is your favorite place in the community? Lake Accotink Park, of course.
What are your community concerns? What are some ideas you have on ways to improve your community? Too few people — not just in our community — have a comfortable relationship with the outdoors. Spending time out of doors is proven to positively impact mental and physical health and reduce stress, helps create feeling of value for natural resource stewardship and helps connect people to their communities. Parks help provide people an opportunity to enjoy being outdoors. Lake Accotink Park strives to offer programs for diverse interests and needs. All summer camps now have fun natural and cultural resource components; we have volunteer opportunities for civic and school groups and we provide opportunities for people to be outside having fun together.
What is the last book you read, or, the last movie you watched? "All the King's Men," movie; "Too Late the Phalarope," book.
What brought you here? I grew up in Northern Virginia and interned with FCPA in college while exploring career options.
What community "hidden treasure" do you think more people should know about? Lake Accotink Park.
When you were younger, what did you want to be when you "grew up?" When I was in elementary school, I alternately wanted to be a paleontologist, run a nature center and study emerging African diseases.
If you were to take a road trip anywhere right now, where would you go? New England to see the autumn foliage
Personal goals? To do my job well and benefit the community, learn to knit mittens, finish law school applications and speak Spanish fluently.