www.parkhere.org<\/a> to help narrow your search. And consider visiting in the winter time when trails are less crowded and wildlife is more active.<\/p>\nHenry Perezalonso, parks and community services director, San Ramon<\/p>\n
One day earlier this summer, Henry Perezalonso was standing on the grass at Serra Park in Sunnyvale, celebrating his 40th reunion from Homestead High School, when he looked around and suddenly realized something: This is where he had his first job.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were literally gathering in the same place I once worked summer programs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His first job was as a recreation leader for after-school and summer programs in Sunnyvale. He wanted to help kids get outside, use local parks space and connect with each other. He didn\u2019t think it was a feasible job long-term, but he knew he loved doing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI connected with the kids, I enjoyed the play and it was a fun little thing that I never thought was going to be a career,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it\u2019s been 39 summers. That\u2019s how I count my career, in summers.\u201d<\/p>\n
After his first summer of working in recreation, he felt a little lost, so he joined the Marine Corps in 1988. He figured it would be a good start towards his goal of becoming a public safety officer. After boot camp, while he was on reserves, his life took another left turn: some friends started a DJ and party planning company in Los Angeles and wanted him to join.<\/p>\n
That was fun for a while, then led to a job as a tour guide, then a job testing game shows in L.A. (remember \u201cLegends of the Hidden Temple?\u201d), then a gig with the city of Beverly Hills, where he was planning adult sports and after-school programs in local parks, then a job as an assistant athletic director of a sports club.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just trying to make money in our 20s, doing whatever came our way,\u201d he said. \u201cSo many people feel lost, or they don\u2019t understand that what they\u2019re doing might lead them somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then a friend back in the Bay Area connected him with the city of Mountain View to be the DJ for a parade. They liked him enough to hire him full-time in their recreation department, where he had a chance to plan fun events, run aquatics programs, connect kids and seniors alike to the parks and rec programs, and lean into his love of community building.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where he turned his passion into a career.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow when I look at young coordinators and people in the profession, I\u2019m like, \u2018do you know that this is actually a career?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know that I was looking for this. I was still looking to do other things for a little while. But I found out I was pretty decent at this job.\u201d<\/p>\n
After 13 years in Mountain View, he found a leadership role in the parks and rec department in Danville. He spent another 13 years in Danville as the town\u2019s director until this summer, when San Ramon hired him to lead their entire parks and community service department.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, what am I providing?\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m providing a service, something pretty cool for the people in this community. Whether it be to have a teen center or a pool so that people can have lifelong learning in a skill, or the senior center for someone to go to so you can age well, or a park to play in. All of those things are pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
His goal is to help folks realize how important the parks and rec department is to a community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is fun,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s about impact. Look at the impact we\u2019re having.\u201d<\/p>\n
The thing about parks and recreation, he said, is how many people have worked in the field at some point in their lifetime, \u201cand now they\u2019re doctors, lawyers, human resource people, all of these different things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both of his daughters now work in parks, one as a lifeguard while studying medical services in college, and the other working at summer camps.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be known as a teaching hospital,\u201d he said. \u201cI want the folks that come under my umbrella to learn and grow and go to a job they want to be in. I\u2019m not keeping this seat forever. I\u2019m building tomorrow\u2019s leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stephanie Stephens, executive director, California Park and Recreation Society
\n![\"Stephanie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/MAG-L-PARKSPEOPLE-XXXX-02.jpg\")
Stephanie Stephens serves as the executive director of the California Park and Recreation Society (photo courtesy of Stephanie Stephens).\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a common theme among those who dedicate their lives to preserving and celebrating our local parks and recreation programs: they feel compelled to serve.<\/p>\n
Stephanie Stephens, who is in her 12th year as the executive director of the California Park and Recreation Society, began her journey as a 14-year-old who wanted to work with seniors.<\/p>\n
Working at a nursing home, she\u2019d serve dinner to older folks. Connecting with them on a personal level opened her heart to the idea of a career in service. She thought she\u2019d want to work in health care, but then she found out you could get a college degree in parks and recreation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy life changed,\u201d she said. \u201cI realized I can get paid to do what truly is singing to my heart, to be with people, help them be the best that they can be, provide them social outlets, make sure that they\u2019re well fed, that they\u2019re well taken care of, that they\u2019re connected.<\/p>\n
After finishing her degree, the Colorado native spent years working in senior centers and community programs, \u201chelping to bring joy to their lives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her career shifted into association work, first in Colorado and then in California, where she\u2019s spent the last 12 years leading the California Park and Recreation Society.<\/p>\n
Now she helps lead education initiatives. She recently led a financial sustainability course, where she teaches parks and recreation professionals how to build long-term funding models in their cities. She also helps advocate for them at the state level, working on legislation and funding programs like Proposition 4, passed last November, which provides $10 billion in funding to help support infrastructure in parks and open spaces, among other areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really do serve as that advocate down at the state capitol to make sure that our parks and open spaces are maintained and safe and well-funded,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Stephens said she\u2019s lucky to see the impact of her work felt by community members on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to call it the number one preventative medicine out there: our parks and open space,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the vitamin D from the sunshine. It\u2019s the fresh air. It\u2019s listening to the birds and how that reduces stress. You don\u2019t have to be an older adult to enjoy that. I know I do my best work when I take five minutes to walk through the green belt through my neighborhood, because it just relaxes me and helps me think better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The park is the \u201csoul of our community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I love about the work that I do,\u201d she said, \u201cis that I still get to be part of that park and recreation system, and help those professionals be the best that they can be, so that they can then help their communities be the best that they can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ashley Grenier, supervising naturalist at Del Valle Regional Park
\n![\"Ashley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/MAG-L-PARKSPEOPLE-XXXX-01_5cefcc.jpg\")
Ashley Grenier is the supervising naturalist at Del Valle Regional Park (Photo courtesy of the East Bay Regional Park District).\u00a0<\/p>\n
A three-day-long field trip into the woods of the Santa Cruz mountains helped a sixth-grade Ashley Grenier develop her love of the outdoors.<\/p>\n
Seven years later, Grenier decided she wanted to make a career of it.<\/p>\n
She began her undergraduate degree at UC Santa Cruz thinking she might pursue marine biology and, while she went into college undeclared, it took her only one semester to decide she was majoring in environmental studies.<\/p>\n
Now, more than 20 years since she began her studies in Santa Cruz, Grenier is a supervising naturalist at Del Valle Regional Park in Livermore, where she oversees public education programs not dissimilar from the one that helped her develop a love of the outdoors in sixth grade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get to be by a lake every day,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve got quails out past the window and bunny rabbits and deer and people coming in, just enjoying parks.\u201d<\/p>\n
For recent college graduates who aren\u2019t sure what they want to do, Grenier recommends finding internships to help discover their passions for the outdoors.<\/p>\n
She started with an internship working at the Department of the Interior in Oakland, where her job was to report oil spills and review environmental policy compliance documents. That led to another internship, this one with the California Coastal Commission, where she participated in California Coastal Cleanup Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese jobs seemed kind of boring at first, but I got different jobs through those internships and realized that my favorite part was talking to people about the environment, about why it\u2019s important,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to go back to my coastal roots and love the ocean and want to protect it. So I was like, \u2018OK, I want to be outside. I want to do environmental education.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She got a master\u2019s degree at the University of Washington and became an outdoor educator on Bainbridge Island. After two stops working as a marine science educator for aquariums in Seattle and San Francisco, she landed her gig at the East Bay Regional Park District, supervising all the education programs that connect the parks to people of the community.<\/p>\n
![\"LIVERMORE,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/MAG-L-7LAKES-06XX-21-1.jpg\")
LIVERMORE, CA \u2013 MAY 14: Part of the shoreline at Del Valle Regional Park is photographed in Livermore, Calif., on Friday, May 14, 2021. (Doug Duran\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n
The best part, she says, is working with kids who are discovering their own love for the outdoors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have the best one-liners,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd they just have that joy when they\u2019re in nature. They\u2019ll tell me, \u2018this is the best day ever.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long ago that one of Grenier\u2019s best days ever sparked a passion that led to an entire career.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s a pretty great job,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There isn\u2019t a nook or cranny in the Almaden Valley that Ali Henry hasn\u2019t spent time in. She…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2854,55155,39496,3056,17742,18116,1727,1725,592,88,90,89,2422],"class_list":["post-101308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-adventure","tag-bay-area-parks","tag-boating","tag-features","tag-fishing","tag-hiking","tag-outdoors","tag-parks","tag-people","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Santa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/MAG-L-PARKSPEOPLE-XXXX-7.jpg\")
Santa Clara County Parks Chief Park Ranger Ali Henry chats with Ethan Tibke, second from right, from San Jose, and Luke Bauman, from Tucson, Arizona, at the entrance to Almaden Quicksilver Hacienda trail entrance in San Jose, Calif., on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. Henry arranged for a Parks vehicle to drive Tibke and Bauman back to their car after they made a wrong turn. Henry, a 15-year Santa Clara County Parks veteran, is the first woman appointed as chief park ranger to oversee operations of more than 55,000 acres of public park lands. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sjm-clowalker-0113.jpg\")
A walker bundles up during a cold and damp morning at Hellyer County Park in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017. (Gary Reyes\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0Gary Reyes\/Bay Area News Group<\/p>\n![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LGW-L-VASONA-0405-11.jpg\")
People sit on a bench in front of low water levels at Vasona Lake at Vasona Lake County Park in Los Gatos, Calif., on Sunday, March 31, 2024. \u201cValley Water has lowered the water level at Vasona Lake to complete regular maintenance on the Vasona Dam,\u201d according to the parks website. \u201cWe anticipate the work will be completed this week and the lake will be refilled next week.\u201d (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"GILROY,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SJM-L-DROUGHT-0511-7.jpg\")
GILROY, CALIFORNIA – MAY 10: A closed boat ramp at Coyote Lake Harvey Bear Ranch County Park in Gilroy, Calif., on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0![\"Joseph](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SJM-L-SJEPROPBUY-01_9a96fa.jpg\")
Joseph D. Grant County Park in the eastern foothills of Santa Clara County near San Jose. The park is near the site of a proposed mixed-use development.<\/p>\n![\"Mustard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SJM-L-SPRING-0321-5_104400222.jpg\")
Mustard plants grow at Calero County Park in San Jose, Calif., on Monday, March 20, 2023. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0