Beyond her wildest dreams: a former park aide's career path
From park aide to regional ops coordinator: a Gen X professional's fairytale
Like many Gen Xers, Colleen Foster has had a varied career path that has taken her to some beautiful places and led to some great stories. She has been a park ranger, a jewelry seller, a hotel manager and a non-profit educator. But more apt than the “long and winding road” analogy may be that of a career arc beginning with and bending back to State Parks.
Today, Colleen helps plays an important role for our eastside parks as the Eastern Regional Operations Coordinator.
Beyond her wildest dreams
As a late teen in the 1980s, Colleen attended The Evergreen State College with an interest in environmental science.
“I had five scholarships, but I still ran out of money in sophomore year,” she remembered.
A recruiter from Washington State Parks had visited the college and talked with her about park aide work.
“I’d grown up building things with my dad and reading Ranger Rick magazines, but I hadn’t dreamt I could do such a thing,” she said.
Still, she needed money, so she applied to work at Potlach State Park on Hood Canal, where she spent the 1987 season as a park aide.
When the season ended, she bought a 1967 travel trailer and volunteered at Potlach.
“They set me up in a hookup site near the shop, and that’s where I lived.”
Making memories
She has great memories of that first year with State Parks:
"Being right off Highway 101, Potlach is used as a rest stop by weary travelers stretching their legs, using the restroom, or having a snack. So, the dumpsters quickly filled on weekends.
"With no garbage service until Tuesday, we employed “dumpster stomping” to compact the refuse so the dumpster would not overflow. We kept a plywood plank in the park truck. We would flip the lids open, toss the board in, then climb into the dumpster. From there, we’d jump up and down as hard as we could. (You can’t make this stuff up.)
"One day, as I was putting all I had into trouncing on the board inside the dumpster, I happened to look up. Standing about 10 yards away was a park visitor with a video camera, happily taking home movies of me stomping my heart out. All I could do was smile and wave."
Moving up
In 1989, she discovered her two years of college and volunteer hours qualified her for a program at Everett Community College, which (at the time) enabled her to become a law enforcement ranger.
She moved to Lake Chelan and worked at Lake Chelan State Park as a fully commissioned park ranger, at first seasonally and then in a permanent position. In the 90s, she was often the only female ranger on staff.
“Now there are gobs more,” she said.
Island time
After 13 years with State Parks, she joined the private sector. Eventually, the lure of Hawai’i took her to Maui, where she did retail jewelry sales and management. She also worked as guest services manager for the Bell/Valet/Concierge department of Hilton Worldwide. And finally, she became director of education at the Maui Ocean Center.
“So, I transitioned from hospitality back into environmental education,” she said. “I was gaining lots of management experience.”
But she missed the Pacific Northwest, so she talked with her old boss from Lake Chelan. In 2017, she moved back to Chelan County and went right back to being a park aide.
“I had such a fun summer,” she said.
She and her husband bought five acres near Lake Chelan and began building a house. At the same time, the agency was developing an assistant region manager position. She applied and was hired into that job in 2018. When Washington State Parks reorganized in 2024, she moved into the regional operations coordinator post.
You’ll have every opportunity
Colleen encourages people, whether they’re in college, in mid-career or in their encore, to consider becoming a park aide.
She says there are three ingredients you’ll need for the job:
- You love working outdoors
- You like to work with your hands, and
- You love customer service and helping people enjoy the outdoors.
“If you have those things, you’ll have every opportunity,” she said.
Colleen learned a great deal as a park aide at Lake Chelan. She also kept in touch with her former supervisors, which made returning to State Parks a more seamless process.
A great team
“I had some amazing bosses,” she said. “I was the only gal on the team, but they never made me feel like I couldn’t do it.”
She recalled learning fire drills in summer of 1988 – and not the kind you do in school or an office:
"In addition to learning to use bladder bags, shovels and Pulaskis, we had a trailer-mounted 300-gallon fire pumper. Our head ranger taught us to hook the trailer up to the truck and navigate the park roads with it.
"Being an inexperienced 20-year-old, I was nervous hauling the trailer. He had me practice by backing the trailer in circles around a tree in the middle of the shop compound.
"By the end of the summer, I got pretty good. To this day, I attribute my trailering skills to the training I received that year."
She has stayed in touch with her supervisors and colleagues from the 1980s and ‘90s, though most have retired and some have passed on.
“I’m hoping to be here until I retire,” she said.
Inspired by this story? Looking for a job this spring and summer? Consider becoming a Washington State Parks park aide! Learn more and apply here!
Originally published January 30, 2026
