Thursday, May 3, 2012
News
Fed Faces: Kawther A. Elmi
Fed Faces: Kawther A. Elmi
Monday, November 21, 2011
The Washington Post
Kawther A. Elmi Park ranger, National Park Service Best known for: Elmi runs interpretive programs on the Mall, explaining the history and surrounding landscape and answering visitors’ questions. She rotates daily among the major National Park Service sites, relating facts, figures and stories about the World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War memorials; the Washington Monument; the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial; and the memorials for presidents Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. She can regale visitors with information about historic events and holidays, and details on area nature and wildlife. Government service: Before becoming a Mall park ranger in 2006, Elmi was a seasonal park guide at the Richmond National Battlefield Park and the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, also in the Virginia capital. Biggest challenge: Elmi had one of the steepest learning curves of all new park rangers who interpret U.S. history, having grown up in Somalia. She came to the United States in 1982 at age 22. But her job — and the job of all park rangers — is to read and study, making sure that she will not be stumped by questions. Quote: “Sometimes people ask questions and rangers look up answers and connect them to other things that reflect our times or our history, even where the trees come from. You couldn’t fall down on the national Mall without hitting history.”
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