The Presidio Trust has hired a former deputy city attorney and public health executive to oversee the unusual, sometimes controversial national park at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Jean Fraser, 53, will take the post in September after spending most of the past 16 years heading the San Francisco Health Plan and San Mateo County’s health system. In the former role, Fraser’s focus was to extend health coverage to city residents, many undocumented, who did not have insurance. At the Presidio, there will be a similar emphasis on outreach, though with a different aim.

“We developed expertise in going out to communities that weren’t engaged with what we were doing,” said Fraser, a Richmond District resident who regularly walks her dog within the boundaries of the former U.S. Army post. “I’m hoping the Presidio can serve almost as a laboratory to make the parks relevant to all.”

Fraser will become the third top executive at the Trust since the Presidio was added to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1994. Her predecessor, Craig Middleton, stepped down last year after holding the top job since 2001.

No ordinary park

If her professional resume seems at odds with running a park, the Presidio is no ordinary park. It’s a 1,491-acre enclave with a $100 million annual budget and 350 employees, and it is required by Congress to be financially self-sufficient. Within its boundaries are nearly 800 buildings and 26 miles of trails, along with archaeological remnants of the Spanish army outpost established in 1776.

The transformation from Army post to national park has brought such benefits as the reclamation of waste disposal sites into seminatural landscapes, as well as the restoration of 19th century structures into housing and cultural facilities. But the Trust has faced criticism as well.

In the year before Middleton’s departure, for instance, the Trust was vilified as elitist for turning down a proposal by filmmaker George Lucas to build a museum across from Crissy Field. At the same time, it battled a lawsuit intended to stop construction of a small hotel along the parade ground at the park’s Main Post — the Trust triumphed in court, but it isn’t moving forward with the hotel idea at present.

Ready for second-guessing

Fraser said she is prepared for the second-guessing that the Trust endures from the local spectrum of political, neighborhood and environmental groups.

“Having so many people so invested in the Presidio is an extraordinary strength and an extraordinary challenge,” Fraser said. “I want to make sure that all voices are listened to, not just the loudest. At some point you need to make the best decision you can and have a tough skin.”

Since Middleton left, a trio of Trust executives has managed ongoing affairs while the board cast the net for his replacement not once but twice.

“It’s tough to find the right combination of skills and enthusiasms,” said Paula Collins, who chairs the board, which has six members appointed by President Obama and one by the secretary of the interior. “Jean really has a great track record in leading public organizations in complex situations.”

Fraser was more modest: “I’ve specialized in running public organizations that really are businesses.” She also is a longtime member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition who briefly served as acting executive director after resigning from her job in San Mateo.

“I left with the explicit intention of moving out of health care, and into the built and natural environment,” said Fraser, who described parks as “my passion since I was a young kid.”

One emphasis ahead, according to both Fraser and Collins, will be to make the Presidio a destination for visitors across the region. That means all ages and all economic classes — not just nearby residents or the mostly young adult crowd that turns out for twice-weekly extravaganzas where food vendors line the parade ground.

“It’s great to be financially self-sustaining, but it’s time to crank up our vision and make (the Presidio) even more accessible,” Collins said. “We’ve got a great opportunity, and Jean’s not shy about taking on big responsibilities.”

Fraser agreed. “Parks need to be relevant to the diverse America that we are now,” she said.

The pair also agree that the next development priority is following through on plans to create a 14-acre landscape stretching from the Main Post down to Crissy Field that will extend across the tunnels of the new Presidio Parkway, which replaced Doyle Drive as the main roadway to and from the Golden Gate Bridge. Final designs for the park-within-a-park should be released this fall.

Background in law

Before heading up the health plan, Fraser was a deputy city attorney in San Francisco involved in litigation and land use. She grew up in Minnesota and Washington, D.C., and received a bachelor’s degree in American history from Yale University before earning a law degree from Yale Law School.

What drew Fraser west is a sensation that many Bay Area transplants know well.

“I came out to San Francisco on a visit after college and thought, ‘Why doesn’t everybody want to live here?’” Fraser recalled. “I love density and love the outdoors, and I’d never seen a place where the two were so tightly interwoven.”

John King is The San Francisco Chronicle’s urban design critic. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron