Board of Directors

I was born in New Orleans and returned here after Hurricane Katrina to help rebuild. I've become a real-estate developer, principally restoring historic buildings into mixed-use, mixed-income projects. One of my principal passions is for urban spaces that people want to live in, work in and play in. Parks and open spaces are important ingredients of that, which is why I've been so pleased to work on this with Parks for All. We want to turn New Orleans into a great parks city.

Adam has been involved with Nola Parks For All since 2016 and is the Founding Director of FitLot, a New Orleans-based, national non-profit organization that is dedicated to helping communities find the resources they need to plan, build and program outdoor fitness parks. Adam gained experience in green space management and community development through his work with the Broadmoor Improvement Association before graduating from Loyola in 2010. Adam believes that all New Orleanians should have access to beautiful, safe, welcoming green spaces within walking distance of their homes and has had the unique experience of collaborating with Parks and Recreation Departments throughout the country.

When I raised my children in Manhattan in the middle of the crack epidemic, our Greenwich Village ball field (then a tub of dirty sand, now a plush turf field) was the center of our social life. I loved the diversity of people who became our friends as we played and cheered. We also roamed to parks throughout the city, traveling by public transportation to reach a variety of “backyards.” As the Executive Director of the NORD Foundation 2011-2018, raising funds to rebuild New Orleans’ playgrounds, I experienced the similarities of social connection between families engaged in outdoor activities. I also see the need and possibilities for an extensive variety of “backyards” connecting and belonging to all of us, which is why I joined the Board of Parks For All.

I was born in the hospital (Touro) just a few blocks from my current home, so after many years of schooling and work in the Northeast, you could say that I’ve come full circle. I’ve enjoyed the beauty of nature from a young age and have a special appreciation for urban parks, so I’m glad to be part of the founding group of like-minded park lovers who set out nearly seven years ago to advocate for the betterment of our New Orleans parks. Now retired from a career in banking, I pursue my lifetime avocation of painting and can sometimes be spotted in one of our parks, toiling over a landscape.

I grew up in Carrollton near the streetcar barn and spent time in the early 1960's wandering around the batture. I have worked as a merchant seaman, teacher, and lawyer. My favorite places in New Orleans include the views of the Mississippi at Audubon Park and Crescent Park, and from the bike path on the levee near the Jefferson Parish line. It’s important to preserve these views and to prevent green space in our larger parks and other public spaces from being converted to commercial and specialized uses.

I first became enamored with the natural world while sitting in the garden for a couple of years reading and contemplating the future. I had sold the advertising agency I co-created after confronting a personal crisis of sorts. Part of this process was reading The Findhorn Garden, the story of a Scottish spiritual community committed to a loftier relationship with the plant kingdom. Since then I’ve come to think of our urban parks as helping we discover the deeper meaning of our human nature. As animals whose natural environment is the natural world, it’s easy to think of our parks as being there to nurture our mental health – as people have begun to realize across the world during the pandemic.

Local businessman Jeff Thomas has been with Parks for All since its inception. As a native New Orleanian and park enthusiast, I believe high quality parks in our neighborhoods are vital. From exercise for seniors to sports and recreation for our children, parks provide us all healthy outcomes. Big parks like City Park and Audubon are great and necessary. But every neighborhood needs and deserves a community park. Investing in our parks is an investment in ourselves.

In addition to parks advocacy, Jeff is Publisher and Editor of Think504.com the largest black owned website in the region and is a partner in WBOK 1230.

Foster Duncan is an Operating Partner of Bernhard Capital Partners, a $2.6 billion private equity and infrastructure firm based in Louisiana. He also serves as a Senior Advisor to EHS Partners, a management consulting firm based in New York. Earlier, he worked in New York for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a large international private equity firm.

Foster serves on the Board of Directors of Atlas Technical Consultants Inc., a publicly traded company in Austin, Texas. Foster is active in several civic organizations in New Orleans in addition to Parks for All, including the Boards of Directors of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, The New Orleans Museum of Art, the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital Foundation, The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana, and in Charlottesville, Virginia the National Advisory Board of the University of Virginia Jefferson Scholars Program.

My appreciation of the necessity and the joy of public parks blossomed decades ago when seeking play space for my children, whether for playground swings, birthday parties, bike riding, or quiet moments. When living in Louisville, Kentucky, the masterwork Olmsted-designed park and parkway system revealed to me the value of enduring social ideals underlying parks, their cultural legacies, and the wisdom of creating parks and neighborhoods in tandem. In New Orleans, my native city, we have witnessed the power of parks to connect the city and to provide multiple outdoor opportunities with the addition of Crescent Park and the Lafitte Greenway. Our public portfolio - major parks, neighborhood parks, historic squares - is an invaluable, irreplaceable resource, and it is a challenge and a privilege, since 2014, to be part of Parks For All to help safeguard, maintain, and grow these spaces.

I am a New Orleans native and an urban planner focused on neighborhoods. I joined Parks For All in 2017 following the Master Plan amendment process. Parks For All's goals matched mine in that we all want every resident of New Orleans to have access to parks and green space for better quality of life.