Dede Petri is President/CEO of the Olmsted Network (formerly National Association for Olmsted Parks (NAOP). The Network champions Olmsted parks and landscapes across the country through advocacy, education and stewardship. The Network was the managing partner of Olmsted 200, the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted in 2022, and recipient that year of the ASLA Olmsted Medal for “environmental leadership, vision and stewardship.” In 2023, the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice recognized the Network for its “efforts to preserve parks and green space … fundamental to the mental well-being of individuals.”
Over the last 30 years, Ms. Neal Petri has been a leader and innovator in a wide range of nonprofit organizations. She was the 42nd president of The Garden Club of America, a national nonprofit founded in 1913 with 18,000 club members around the country. In 1995, she co-founded the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), a non-profit dedicated to higher education, serving as president from 2003 – 2016. Ms. Neal Petri also served as General Counsel and Congressional Liaison for the National Endowment for the Humanities and worked as a First Amendment and communications lawyer and Senior Vice President of the Recording Industry Association of America. She currently serves as vice chair of the Aldo Leopold Foundation and Vice Regent for Wisconsin on the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association board of directors.
