Maren Lankford, Director of Special Projects, President’s Office, Central Park Conservancy

Maren Lankford is the Director of Special Projects in the President’s Office at the Central Park Conservancy. Her portfolio includes managing Central Park’s World Heritage nomination process as well as overseeing a comprehensive, year-long field survey of Park visitors.

Prior to joining the Conservancy in 2024, she served as the Director of Board Relations & Special Fundraising Projects at Friends of the High Line where she was responsible for launching the organization’s most recent capital campaign. Her experience also includes positions within MoMA’s education team and at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art. Before moving to New York in 2009, she worked for the Art Institute of Chicago, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Minnesota Children’s Museum. 

She received a B.A. in art history, women’s studies, and management at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN and an M.A. in museum studies at NYU where her thesis explored the country’s first museum program for people with dementia and their caregivers at MoMA.