This weekend, the Freedom Center’s Chief Executive Officer, Donald Murphy, is receiving the Alumnus of the Year from the University of California-San Diego (UCSD). The award recognizes distinguished alumni who’ve made an impact in their community or significant career achievements.

Murphy graduated from the UCSD in 1975 with a bachelors of art degree in biology.

In an interview with San Diego public radio station KPBS, Murphy talks about the winding career path that led him from being a park ranger to the CEO of a national museum dedicated to relating the story of the nation’s struggle to overcome slavery. He also talked more in depth about the Freedom Center’s mission in this lengthy interview with Loma Linda station KCAA.

“Don Murphy is a visionary leader and steward whose relentless dedication to truth is teaching generations the meaning of freedom,” said Armin Afsahi, assistant vice chancellor for alumni affairs and executive director of the UCSD Alumni Association.

Murphy’s responsibilities at the Cincinnati-based National Underground Railroad Freedom Center include managing a $6 million budget and securing funding for programs and exhibits, which pay homage to enslaved Africans in early America as well as black and white abolitionists.

Murphy previously worked at California State Parks, where he spent six years directing the statewide system. After creating several high-profile programs in Sacramento during the late 1990s, he was recruited in 2001 by the Bush administration to serve as deputy director of the National Park Service where he managed a budget of more than $2.3 billion and 30,000 employees.