Michael J. Kalvort, CPRE, is an enthusiastic, collaborative, innovative and enterprising leader in the parks and recreation profession. Over the past 25 years, he has improved the organizations he has worked with by delivering new parks and facilities, developing revenue sources, fostering innovative programming, reorganizing members into more efficient teams, and improving customer service delivery. He is proud to be an American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration Fellow (limited to the top 100 practitioners,) serves on the Academy Board of Directors, and also is a NRPA CAPRA Commissioner.
Professionally, Michael has been the director for several National Award-Winning agencies including The City of Virginia Beach, Virginia, the City of Boca Raton, Florida, and the City of Chesapeake, Virginia.
Michael’s favorite accomplishments include working with the community to open three technology advanced and environmentally sensitive recreation centers in Virginia Beach (each over 70,000 sq feet), partnering with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to develop one of the world’s most energy efficient public buildings (the Brock Center), and collaborating with the community to design, program, and plan a transformational park in the heart of Boca Raton which sat undeveloped for over 20 years.
Michael has been active in the National Recreation and Park Association since 1995. He’s currently serves as a CAPRA Commissioner and was humbled to have won an NRPA Award in 2023 as part of the CAPRA Reimagining Team. He previously served as the Chair for the NRPA Administrators and Leadership Development Network and for nine years, he served on the NRPA’s Revenue Development School Board of Regents, twice as the chair. He also served on the State Board of Directors for the Virginia Recreation and Park Society, the Florida Recreation and Park Association, and the Kansas Park and Recreation Association. Michael is proud to be one of the first 53 professionals who attained the CPRE Certification.
As a lifelong learner, he is proud to be involved with several mentoring initiatives throughout the nation. While he is fortunate to have been able to assist many growing professionals, he never forgets that there were so many instrumental people who mentored him throughout his career.
He is proud to be a University of Florida Gator where he attained a Bachelors of Exercise Science with a specialization in Sports Administration and Management. He attained his Masters of Public Administration from Nova Southeastern University.
In his free time, he enjoys playing guitar, attending concerts, and visiting Disney World. While he has worked most of his professional career in recreation, his favorite parks remain the Magic Kingdom and Epcot Center where he developed his love for Disney Parks as a child. [Current as of July 2024]