This month’s Parks & Recreation magazine is our Health and Wellness Pillar issue, and as such, it behooves us to highlight NRPA’s Director of Strategic Health Initiatives, Zarnaaz Bashir, MPH. Among her colleagues, friends and family, Bashir is known as smart, capable, kind and passionate about eating healthfully and exercising. First in the public health realm and now in the park and recreation industry, Bashir translated that passion into a career of advocating for policies and programs that make it easier for children, adults and seniors to adopt healthy lifestyles. We recently caught up with the cycling and Zumba aficionado to learn more about what drives her commitment to health and wellness.

Parks & Recreation magazine: What initially sparked your interest in public health?

Zarnaaz Bashir: I was always a science-oriented kid. My father was a physician and a huge role model for me. I thought I would follow his footsteps with a medical career, but then I took a medical sociology class in college that blew me away. It introduced me to the field of public health. What I loved about it is its focus on prevention and the impact public health has community-wide, not just with individuals.

P&R: How did you then make the connection to parks and recreation?

Bashir: I became very interested in community health and helping communities adopt healthy behaviors. A colleague of mine had recommended that I join NRPA’s health team, which was very intriguing to me because I had not considered parks and recreation as a traditional health provider. I was used to working with health departments and hospitals.

P&R: Give an example of one of the most inspiring/effective health and wellness programs you’ve seen during your time at NRPA. 

Bashir: ACHIEVE (Action Communities for Health, Innovation, and EnVironmental changE) really put parks and recreation on the map in the public health world. It was a program funded by the CDC to build local coalitions, led by the park and recreation agency, and create healthier communities through changes to policies and the built environment. We had grantees implementing smoking bans in parks, impacting thousands of residents. We had communities replacing vending machines in schools with healthier options, and parks improving trails to better connect to underserved communities. It was an amazing model that focused on making changes that were sustainable and institutionalized. The program completed in 2012, yet we still hear from grantees on their continued successes.

P&R: What do you see as the largest barriers preventing people from adopting healthier lifestyles?

Bashir: I knew someone who had progressively gained a lot of weight over a period of a few years. Everyone was telling her to go to the gym, reduce the junk food, etc. It’s so easy to say that. And it didn’t work. After years of living an unhealthy lifestyle, we came to realize that she was dealing with some very serious personal issues at home and was severely depressed. I think a number of barriers exist that inhibit people from making healthier choices, such as being low-income and living in a food desert. But one that we don’t talk about much is mental health and well-being. We talk a lot about getting healthy by eating right and incorporating physical activity into our everyday routines, and we assume that it’s easy for everyone….We need to pay more attention to the factors in people’s lives that are preventing them from being healthy — depression and anxiety being among them. 

P&R: Why do you feel parks so integral to the health and wellness of individuals and communities?

Bashir: This is what’s so great about parks and recreation. Getting healthy outdoors is known to improve people’s mental health and overall well-being. Connecting to nature just makes people feel good. We don’t talk enough about the mental health benefits of parks and green space enough, but it’s so critical and obvious.

Samantha Bartram is the Executive Editor of Parks & Recreation magazine.