At the age of 16, Ryan Woods, working his first day for the Boston Parks Department, picked up a baseball and began teaching kids in Dorchester how to throw and catch it. Next month, he will leave the agency, having over 24 years climbed to the top of the organizational ladder as the youngest Parks Commissioner ever appointed.

He is taking a position within the Meet Boston organization as director of strategic initiatives focusing on activating Boston year-round. Liza Meyer, a landscape architect who was heavily involved in the Franklin Park Action Plan, will step in as interim commissioner until a permanent one is named.

The 40-year-old Woods took charge as Parks Commissioner in 2019 under former Mayor Marty Walsh and has continued in the role through Mayor Wu’s term to date, during which time he has overseen historic investments in the city’s parks over the last five years.

“It will be hard to find anyone who loves the city of Boston more and who lives and breathes public service,” Mayor Wu said of Woods this week. “I’m really grateful for all the work he has dedicated to our residents, our neighborhoods, and our city.

"We talk a lot about making the parks not just a line item on the budget or a point on a map, but spaces where you take your own kids like he did and meet the high standards of our biggest critics – our own children. Ryan brought so much to the job from his experience to his relationships.”
She also praised Woods for programming the parks with initiatives in her ‘Connect, Learn & Explore’ initiative – to include concerts and free daily summer camps at many of the city’s parks.

“All of those things are tied to seeing Boston as a home for everyone and each public space should feel like that too,” she said. “He went way above and beyond.”

The job of commissioner involves overseeing 331 parks, cemeteries, golf courses and squares.

“The commissioner was my fifth role at Parks in 18 years,” said Woods, who worked part time as a summertime coach through high school and college. Later, he oversaw public/private partnerships, worked in programming, was the communications director, and then deputy commissioner. Overseeing the parks has been a very special job, said the life-long Dorchester resident because he was often improving the very parks that he used as a kid.

“The one thing I love is that I was born and raised in Dorchester and still live in Dorchester,” Woods said. “To be a part of this administration and the previous administration when we had great investment in parks. Whether it was me playing ADSL soccer or Savin Hill Little League, these investments were at parks I played at when I was a kid,” he said.

“Over the last five years to see McConnell Park, Town Field, Harambee Park, and Ryan Park on Dorchester Avenue get upgraded is very special. I’m also really excited about Walsh Park getting upgrades and have a home for girls softball.”

Woods is so tied to parks that he and his wife Lauren bought a home across from a park in Dorchester, a property his three children play at and that has helped him gain perspective on the system he oversees.

“I also take my kids to a lot of other parks around the city and their input has helped me a lot,” he said with a laugh. “They have a rating system of 3, 2, or 1, and they’ll tell me, ‘Dad, that one was just a 2.’ The input really has helped.”

In looking back at his tenure, Woods said, it is impossible to ignore the pandemic that started a year after he took the reins. It was time when parks become a haven.

He said he thought the job was going to be “ribbon cuttings and meeting people,” but it quickly turned into having to close parks and follow the latest health guidelines – producing guidance signs that had to be posted with zip ties across every property.

“We learned through Covid,” he said. “People started having birthday parties there and community meetings and a lot of other gatherings. It was one place they could go safely. We even worked with the mural team to paint circles six feet apart to help people social distance.

“That’s when we saw the real importance of parks and that’s when the influx of investment in parks” came into play, he added. “It really put parks and the Parks Department on the front burner and showed they are important in our daily lives.”

Another key outcome from his tenure was the completion of the Franklin Park Action Plan and making early investments in the program.

“We ended up with the best engagement on any project in Parks history,” he said. “It took four years but now we have a roadmap and funding for Franklin Park. Sometimes a master plan goes on the shelf, but this one had funding. We don’t have the $200 million it needs, but we have the $20 million to start.”

Woods added that an executive director of Franklin Park – a key recommendation from the plan – should be in place by next month, as they are conducting interviews right now.

Of course, the question he is frequently asked is which park does he enjoy the most. Is it the world-famous Kelleher Rose Garden or the breathtaking beauty along the Commonwealth Mall?

“It’s actually Franklin Park,” he said. “It’s because every time I go to Franklin Park and walk through it, I end up going to a new location I’ve never been to before. All the sudden you can find yourself on Schoolmaster Hill, where Ralph Waldo Emerson had a place…or you go through the wilderness on a path that could be in the Berkshires, but you’re really in the epicenter of Boston.”

Woods said that he never had a day when he didn’t want to come to work, and that was mostly because of the great staff and workers who did “incredible work” day in and day out.

“I think we’ve done a great job and will continue to do a great job,” he said. “We’re so fortunate in Boston to live within a 10-minute walk of a park, and our parks offer a lot. They’re more than just a bench and a trash barrel.”