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Crawfordville resident Andre McLendon has been named Assistant Director of Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites, a division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. McLendon spent 30 years at A.H. Stephens State Park in Crawfordville, but most recently served as a division region manager. The announcement was made January 23 by State Parks Director Angie Johnson, and he begins his new position on February 1.
“I am very proud of Andre and confident in his ability to lead the operations of Georgia’s exceptional state park system,” said Johnson. “He has had a stellar career and done an exceptional job, particularly during state-wide emergency incidents such as hurricanes and floods.”
The Taliaferro County native began his career with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in 1994, working at A.H. Stephens State Park. For 17 years he also oversaw Hamburg State Park and Robert Toombs Historic Site as satellite operations. He has served in key roles, such as filling in for management vacancies at High Falls, Elijah Clark and Hard Labor Creek State Park, as well as a lengthy managerial vacancy at Fort Yargo State Park. Most recently, McLendon has served as Region 3 Manager over nine sites. During his 31-year career, McLendon has trained numerous employees who have received promotions within DNR.
McLendon graduated from the 2019-2020 National State Park Leadership School, where he was elected class president. He is a DNR Leadership Academy graduate, serves as a Georgia Park Ranger Academy Instructor and Manager-In-Training (MIT) Instructor, and was 2014 Park Manager of the Year. Under his leadership, A.H. Stephens State Park won the 2020 Most Outstanding Park Operations Award and 2021 Most Outstanding Interpretive Program Award.
“I’m looking forward to strengthening our team through training and education,” said McLendon, “and like my fellow park rangers, I take great pride in protecting our natural and historic resources as well. I want our division to provide the very best service to the people of Georgia that we can.”
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