Mayor Daniel Lurie named Sarah Madland today the new general manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, elevating the long-serving policy chief after what City Hall describes as an extensive national search. Madland, who has been holding the fort as interim general manager since Phil Ginsburg left at the end of 2025, will stay in the role permanently and was scheduled to be sworn in at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.
As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the national search drew 106 applicants before a commission committee cut the field to 15. Five finalists were interviewed in a closed session on April 17, and the commission ultimately forwarded three names to the mayor. Lurie chose Madland after Ginsburg, who led the department for 16 years, stepped down late last year.
Madland has worked in the San Francisco city government since 2001 and spent the last 15 years as the department’s director of policy and public affairs, rising to interim general manager during the leadership transition, according to the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. She has been a familiar face at park openings and capital projects, led the successful push to make JFK Drive a permanent car-free promenade and helped secure more than $500 million for park improvements. Off the clock, she is a mother of three and coaches youth soccer and flag football.
“The next era for Recreation and Parks will ensure that every family, in every neighborhood, feels these spaces belong to them,” Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle. Recreation and Park Commission President Kat Anderson, who led the search, said Madland “distinguished herself” for her deep departmental knowledge and proven executive leadership.
What She Inherits
Madland steps into the permanent role as the department manages a crowded slate of openings and renovations this year, including the Herz Recreation Center and McLaren Park projects, the Twin Peaks Promenade, and the proposed Willie Mays Fields at Crocker Amazon. The Twin Peaks groundbreaking and other project updates are laid out in recent department press releases, according to the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, while the plan for the Crocker Amazon ballfields has been covered by local outlets that track commission actions. SFGATE (Bay City News) noted the commission’s approval of the project along with the San Francisco Giants’ lead gift.
City leaders are positioning Madland as a department insider who can juggle big capital projects with day-to-day neighborhood programming. Her early test will be keeping up maintenance, budgets and safe programming across more than 200 parks while those high-profile projects roll forward. The next few months are likely to show whether routine operations and ambitious construction timelines can stay on track under a general manager who already knows the system inside and out.
