Holly Larson

Holly Larson has been a park and trail planner since the early 1990's, and for the last 19 years has been an Outdoor Recreation Planner for the National Park Service's Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program. In this position, she has assisted over 50 communities in Minnesota on partnership projects.  

She uses her communication and conflict management skills primarily with partners outside of NPS to facilitate large and small meetings, troubleshoot projects that are “stuck”, and coordinate teams. Much of RTCA work is about getting teams to work better together, so she uses the concepts taught in the “Getting to the Core or Conflict and Communications” class every day.  

She holds a Master’s Degree in Regional Planning from Cornell University, and worked in the recreation, environment, and planning fields for small City governments, large Counties, and non profit organizations in Alaska, Florida and Maryland prior to joining NPS. Her career is a result of her passion for the outdoors, where she spends as much of her free time as she can hiking, paddling, skiing, biking and photographing in parks and on trails.