About Us

Our Vision and Mission Statement

The vision of Pathways to Parks is to motivate Americans of color to get outdoors and enjoy the benefits of nature in our national, state and local parks and to help make it easy and accessible for them to do so. Pathways to Parks’ founders are active outdoor enthusiasts, and by our example we will help inspire others and allow them to feel comfortable branching out into this new sphere of activity. We plan to highlight the history of Black, Native American, and American Hispanic heritage in the parks and other publicly-owned lands. Our overarching goal is to connect communities to these assets so that they will come to love them and seek to protect them for the benefit of this and future generations.

Pathways to Parks, encourages Black, Hispanic, Native American, and other people of color to become interested in, and take care and ownership of America’s public lands. The National Parks belongs to all of us, why not utilize them?  

Our Approach

We engage leaders and communities for better understanding of diversity and inclusiveness in our public lands. To understand racial inequities in these spaces and effectively begin to dismantle it requires a committed and consistent effort. Our experience is that Pathways to Parks’ effort to get people of color into the outdoors helps to realize the health benefits from utilizing public lands that belong to all of us as we learn how to protect them.

Meet the awesome people

Tanya Marie Pender
Co-founder, President
Tanya Marie Pender is a leader and organizer with Pathways to Parks. She is also Pathways to Parks’ co-founder and President. She works locally and across Western North Carolina to raise awareness in communities and organizations by strengthening relationships through increased understanding of the underrepresentation of people of color in public lands. In the Hendersonville, Asheville, NC greater area she and her husband organize outdoor outings. She is an active outdoors enthusiast and community engager whose work focuses on connecting communities to national parks, along with local and state parks, so they will learn to love, enjoy and protect them for future generations. She has a long history of training having worked 37 years in numerous positions throughout her career in various federal government sectors, retired (Special Agent). Tanya Marie has trained in various capacities including Leadership Effectiveness and served as Chairperson of the Human Relations Committee for the Western Pacific Region of the Federal Aviation Administration. She is requested to speak on issues related to the health benefits of people of color getting outdoors in nature. She is also a leader in her community having been recently elected to the Conserving Carolina Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee as well as nominated to serve as Board of Directors summer of 2021. She has been elected to the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation Board of Directors since 2020. She has been elected to Mountain True Board of Directors since 2019 where she serves as the Chair of the Governance and Equity Committee where she emphasizes the practice of, and advocacy for, the inclusion of people of color and marginalized communities addressing environmental issues. Her advocacy for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is an asset to these boards.
Larry Pender
Co Founder
Larry Pender is a retired manager of New York University. He is an outdoors enthusiast who enjoys cycling, hiking, motorcycling, and tennis. He was recently elected to the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy Board of Directors as of 2020, and serves on the Equity/Diversity/Inclusion committee. As a new resident of Western North Carolina since 2018, he has committed to contributing to the outdoor diversity in the surrounding communities.