An open house is set for later this month for members of the community to meet Kristen Griffen, the new manager for Ebey’s Landing Historical Reserve.

The open house, 4-5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, is being hosted by the Friend’s of Ebey’s at the Coupeville library, 788 N.W. Alexander St. All are invited to attend.

Light refreshments will be available and a short program will be held at 4:30 p.m.

Griffin was previously the Spokane City/County Historic Preservation Officer, a position she held since 2008. Prior to that, she worked for a variety of National Park Service units in Alaska.

Griffin told The Whidbey Examiner that the manager position for Ebey’s Reserve, with its emphasis on partnerships with the community, appealed to her philosophy on preservation.

“I had experience that was uniquely suited to the position,” Griffin told The Examiner in a telephone interview.

In Spokane, she directed the historic preservation program. She worked with rural and urban property owners, neighborhood associations and government officials, according to a news release issued by the Trust Board for Ebey’s Landing.

Before working in Spokane, Griffen was the historian at Sitka National Park and a historian and archeologist for Denali National Park in Alaska.

Griffin succeeds Mark Preiss, who resigned in the summer 2013 to take a position with the Glacier Park Conservancy in Montana, and Lisbeth Cort, who served as interim manager during the search for a permanent replacement for Preiss.

“She’s got 25 years of historic preservation and cultural resource experience,” Cort told The Examiner.

Griffen was one of three finalists vying for the position.