After spending three years overseeing Salt Lake City's open-space program, Emy Maloutas has been named the capital city's parks and public lands director.

Maloutas will continue to manage the city's open space, but she now will manage parks, cemeteries and urban forestry as well. She replaces former parks director Val Pope.

"Emy is highly qualified and has proven her leadership skills in the few short years of heading our open-space program," Public Services Director Rick Graham wrote in a statement. "Her remarkable passion, commitment to teamwork and dedication to preserving and enhancing our municipal properties will be a benefit to the entire city."

Before Salt Lake City hired Maloutas as open-space manager in 2008, she worked for the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority in California doing park development, open space conservation and trail planning in the Los Angeles area. She holds a master's degree in landscape architecture from California State Polytechnic University-Pomona.

Jeremiah Stettler