Sally Petrella, President.

Sally Petrella is one of the founding members of the Friends of Rouge Park and serves as the president. Growing up in southeast Michigan near the Rouge River, Petrella has always had a strong connection to the natural environment, and a commitment to improving it for all. She became active in improving her neighborhood park (Rouge Park) not long after moving to the city in 1987 and has a deep commitment to Detroit. As president, she provides guidance on stewardship of the park's 60 acre prairie, has secured and implemented two grants to create interpretive nature trails, fostered a community led Master Plan, oversees annual cleanups that attract as many as 300 people, advocates for the park, oversees interns and programming, and develops partnerships to improve the park. 

​Sally is the Watershed Ecologist at Friends of the Rouge, the non-profit focused on the Rouge River, where she has worked for over 20 years. She engages local residents in collecting data about the health of the Rouge River that is used to assess and guide restoration. In addition to engaging people with the river through monitoring, she promotes paddling on the Rouge River as a way to connect people with the resource.  She holds a Master's Degree in Biology from the University of Michigan where she studied natural ecosystems. When she has free time, she spends it  gardening, hiking, backpacking, and paddling.