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Aileen McEldowney, AICP
Aileen McEldowney is a park planner at the Naperville Park District. In this role, Aileen is responsible for analyzing park land, open space, and recreational trends while understanding needs within the community. She oversees and updates the Park District's Master Plan, the District's long-range planning document, and ensures consistency of future park planning and development projects with the plan. She researches land acquisition opportunities and prepares documents relating to conveyances, annexations, easements, intergovernmental agreements, and other related activities. She also manages the District's CAPRA accreditation process through the National Recreation and Park Association.
Prior to entering the parks and recreation field in 2010, Aileen worked as a Brownfields coordinator at the City of Blue Island and interned at the Congress for the New Urbanism.
Aileen holds a master's degree in Public Policy and Administration from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Q&A with Aileen
Describe your path to the parks and recreation industry. Did you start your career from the beginning in this industry? If not, how did you get here and why did you pursue a job in this field?
I kind of fell backwards into the parks and recreation field. I graduated in 2007 with an undergraduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning. I hoped to end up working in a government field after graduating. However, the year I graduated was the start of the recession and I didn't realize I was entering what ended up being historically one of the worst job markets. I ended up taking an intern/part-time grant position at the City of Blue Island thinking it would be a short-term solution, but I ended up working there nearly three years. In 2010, I came across a job posting for the “Planner” position at the Park District and applied on a whim, even though my degree wasn't in parks and recreation.
Please explain your specific role as succinctly as possible, including which department you work in.
As the Planner within the Planning Department for the Park District, under the direction of the Director of Planning, I am responsible for researching and documenting potential land opportunities for acquisition; preparing legal instruments such as agreements, ordinances, and resolutions relating to conveyances, annexations, easements, and other related activities; providing analysis and editing to Park District's planning documents such as the organizational Master Plan and Trails Master Plan and ensuring future amenity developments are in accordance with them; utilizing GIS to manage the Park District's parks and open space inventory along with developing maps and maintaining and analyzing current and future park data; and collaborating with other Park District departments, City of Naperville staff, other governmental agencies, and residents to assist recreational planning-related needs.
What about your life in general makes this industry a good fit for you?
Personally, I find this field encourages you to discover more about your community and surroundings and how they evolve as your needs change. For example, when I first started working at the Park District, I got to know the trail system quite well as I was training for a marathon one year; now that I have children, I find myself trying to visit all the neighborhood parks in the area to watch them explore and grow through play. I find this industry is very accommodating for flexible scheduling as well, which is helpful for working parents and growing families in particular.
If you would recommend working in parks and rec to others, what reasons would you give to support your recommendation?
It's rewarding as all get out, as you have a direct impact on your community's well-being. You get to see your results in real time as you visit parks and see people's enjoyment first hand. You encourage people to have fun on a daily basis while connecting them with nature and enhancing their quality of life.
How would you explain to someone that parks and recreation is a great place for a career – regardless of their field of study, college degree or experience.
You can't comprehend how truly wide ranging the parks and rec field is until you're in it. I had very limited knowledge of this industry prior to working here, figuring it was simply operating a park here and there and maybe having a facility for some programs. But there is an entire operation at work with a varied range of employment opportunities, from traditional office roles, like human resources, finance, and customer service, to more specific and unique roles, like park maintenance, dance instructors, lifeguards, natural resources managers, preschool teachers, fitness instructors, park police, etc. There are opportunities to apply many disciplines within this one field.
