Anne “Dede” Neal Petri is the President/CEO of Olmsted Network, formally the National Association for Olmsted Parks (NAOP), the only national organization dedicated solely to advancing the life and legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted and the Olmsted Firms. Before coming to NAOP, she was the 42nd president of The Garden Club of America. In 1995, she co-founded the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), a non-profit dedicated to higher education, serving as president from 2003 to 2016.
She also served as General Counsel and Congressional Liaison for the National Endowment for the Humanities and worked as a First Amendment and Communications Lawyer and Senior Vice President of the Recording Industry Association of America. She graduated from Harvard College with an AB in American history and literature (where she was first introduced to Frederick Law Olmsted) and received her JD from Harvard Law School where she was the first woman President of the Harvard Journal on Legislation.