Ernestine White

Ernestine serves as the national youth employment program coordinator in the Youth Programs Division within the Directorate of Workforce and Inclusion at the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. She assists in coordinating over $14 million worth of nationally funded, diversity-focused youth and young adults' employment and developmental programs. These programs help the agency connect with and engage in developmental and job skills programs for over 8,000 youth and young adults. They also engage over 50,000 kids and teens annually in education, service, and recreation opportunities by collaborating with nonprofit organizations and federal, state, local, and tribal stakeholders. In addition, she manages special youth and veteran-focused initiatives. 

Ernestine serves as the project lead for the Youth Partner Portal, a game-changing system in the federal government. She also led the efforts in developing the national partnership with the Boy & Girls Clubs of America. She has served in the Directorate of Interpretation, Education, and Volunteers as the national volunteer and youth programs coordinator in Washington, DC. She collaborated with 14 regional and national program managers to oversee more than 300,000 volunteers, who donated over 8 million hours of service annually at that time. During Ernestine's NPS career, she worked in the maintenance, natural resources, administration, and interpretation and education divisions, serving at Independence National Historical Park and Valley Forge National Historical Park. 

Ernestine has been regionally and nationally recognized for her outstanding contributions to volunteer and youth program development, as well as engagement and partnership deployment. She also received recognition for her exceptional contributions in using her experiences as a U.S. Navy veteran to help solve problems and develop strategies to better connect and engage recent military veterans with NPS opportunities.