Central Valley District Superintendent, California State Parks
Danielle Gerhart has been acting as Central Valley District superintendent since December 2020. In her role, she oversees the operation of 14 parks, including Calaveras Big Trees State Park, home to over 1,000 giant sequoias. Danielle works with local partners and cooperating associations on various projects. She has been working on the wind farm lease in Pacheco State Park—the only wind farm within a California state park—and she helped negotiate mitigation for a large Bureau of Reclamation project at San Luis Reservoir. Danielle has been an advocate for Calaveras Big Trees State Park forest stewardship projects, working toward the preservation and protection of these important resources while sharing them with visitors from all over the world.
Danielle holds a degree in recreation administration from California State University, San Diego. After a stint with Caltrans, she served as a state park interpreter 1 in Columbia State Historic Park before being promoted to the new marketing director position at the Central Valley District Office in 2016. From 2017 to 2020, she worked as the senior park and recreation specialist, overseeing planning, concessions, lodging, marketing and managing of the Calaveras Sector.
Danielle loves to spend time at the lake paddling, camping and hanging with her two boys.
Areas of Expertise: Park management; budgeting; purchasing; revenue analysis; statistical tracking; public relations; project management