Angelita Alvino Returns to St. Augustine to Lead Its Historic Forts

Angelita Alvino’s connection to St. Augustine began well before her appointment as superintendent of Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas National Monuments. Earlier in her National Park Service career, she served as the park’s administrative officer, building memories in the city with her family. Now, she has returned to lead two sites that help define the region’s historic landscape.

“It is a tremendous honor to serve as superintendent of Castillo de San Marcos, one of the National Park Service’s most iconic and historically significant parks,” Alvino said. “Returning to St. Augustine—where my family and I previously made so many wonderful memories during my time as the park’s administrative officer—makes this opportunity especially meaningful.”

Alvino officially began the role Aug. 23, bringing more than 25 years of National Park Service experience to St. Augustine. For nearly five years before this move, she served as superintendent of the national parks of St. Croix.

Her path to the Park Service has roots in both family and place. Originally from Puerto Rico, Alvino grew up visiting the forts of Old San Juan, experiences that offered an early connection to the kind of historic sites she would one day help oversee. She is also a second-generation NPS employee, following in her mother’s footsteps.

Over the course of her career, Alvino has worked in parks across Florida, the Virgin Islands, Georgia and Massachusetts. That range of experience has shaped a leadership style centered on relationships, collaboration and respect for the people who keep public places functioning: employees, partners and the surrounding community.

The appointment arrives at a meaningful moment for St. Augustine’s two national monuments. Castillo de San Marcos stands at the edge of the city’s waterfront as a familiar gathering point for residents and visitors alike, while Fort Matanzas preserves another important piece of Florida’s colonial history along the coast. Together, the sites invite visitors into a larger conversation about the region’s past and the many communities connected to it.

Alvino has been recognized within the National Park Service as an Emerging Leader, representing the Southeast Region at the NPS Leadership Summit in 2008 and the Southeast Regional Leadership Conference in 2010. She is currently enrolled in the Senior Executive Development Program.

Outside the office, she enjoys time with family, exploring the outdoors, baking, visiting new places and seeking out new experiences. She and her husband will relocate to St. Augustine.

For Alvino, the move is both professional and personal: a return to a city she knows, and an opportunity to help guide its nationally significant historic places with a fresh perspective.

“I look forward to building on the park’s remarkable legacy,” she said, “while creating new memories with the community and my family.”