Tracy Swartout, a National Park Service veteran from South Carolina, was announced Tuesday as the new deputy superintendent at Mount Rainier National Park.

Swartout, currently the superintendent of Congaree National Park in South Carolina, will begin work at Mount Rainier on Sept. 2.

“Tracy offers an outstanding blend of management, leadership, business planning and interpersonal abilities that will greatly benefit Mount Rainier,” Mount Rainier superintendent Randy King said in a prepared statement. “I very much look forward to working with her.”

Swartout is from Columbia, S.C., has worked 12 years for the park service, including six years Congaree. She also oversaw the acquisition of more than 1,800 acres of land. She previously worked for the National Parks Conservation Association. She worked as a climbing instructor in college. She attended the University of South Carolina, earned a master’s degree from the University of Waterloo in Canada. She also started a second master’s degree at Duke.

“I am thrilled to be selected to serve at Mount Rainier, which protects a wealth of natural and cultural resources and provides visitors a place to seek both recreation and renewal,” Swartout said in a statement released by the park. “It is an inspiring landscape, offering
visitors diverse opportunities to develop connections with the forces of nature that dominate the park’s physical environment.”

Craig.hill@thenewstribune.com