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Five Questions article: Five Questions: Kirk Elifson, President Olmsted Linear Park Alliance
January 22, 2010
Source: Community Partnership Update/February 2010
 1. How did you get involved with the Olmsted Linear Park Alliance (OLPA), and what does 2010 hold for OLPA?
My involvement with OLPA started in 2007 when I volunteered with some of the park maintenance events. I'm an avid gardener and my enthusiasm apparently caught the eye of several others with OLPA. They asked me to join the board shortly thereafter and in Jan. 2009, I became president. OLPA is restoring the Olmsted parks to the original vision of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. Our fundraising for this restoration is ongoing, and OLPA's annual gala will be held at the Fernbank Natural History Museum on Feb. 28. For more information on the gala and OLPA, visit www.atlantaolmstedpark.org.
2. What is the status of OLPA's work?
The Olmsted Linear Park consists of six segments that border Ponce de Leon Avenue. Five segments are complete, and the sixth, Deepdene, should be finished later this year. Deepdene is a wooded, 22-acre tract located on the eastern end of the linear park and is as large as the other six segments combined. Over $4.5 million will be invested in Deepdene alone; it will be a wooded jewel in the linear park.
3. Who owns these parks and maintains them?
The City of Atlanta owns four of the segments and half of another; Fernbank owns the other half segment plus the Deepdene segment, which it leases to DeKalb County. As OLPA is restoring these segments, the city and DeKalb County are helping tremendously to maintain the parks by mowing and removing fallen trees.
4. Aside from your volunteer work with OLPA, what is the federal research work that you are conducting?
In my professional life, I am a research professor at the Rollins School of Public Health. With my colleagues at Emory, I'm currently involved in an HIV study in Atlanta that examines the role of community and the individual in changing risky behavior and another project that focuses on drug use and crime. These five-year studies are supported by the National Institutes of Health and the aim is to gain a greater understanding of the physical, structural and social environmental factors that impact health. The findings will contribute to improved prevention and intervention programs as well as revisions that will contribute to a reduction in health disparities.
5. How did you get involved with this public health work?
In the past I have worked extensively with members of marginalized populations who often fall through the cracks of our social and health care systems. For example, prostitutes, drug users, the homeless, people with mental illness and those impacted by the AIDS epidemic. I have a passion for people who are in disadvantaged positions and gravitate towards applied or transitional research work that may help improve their lives.
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