Jamie Rappaport Clark (born 1957 or 1958) is an American conservationist and former government official working as the president and CEO of

Defenders of Wildlife Defenders of Wildlife is a 501(c)(3) non-profit conservation organization based in the United States. It works to protect all native animals and plants throughout North America in their natural communities. Background Defenders of Wildlife is ...

. She joined the organization as

executive vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

in 2004.

Early life and education

Born in New York city, Clark attended

Towson State University Towson University (TU or Towson) is a public university in Towson, Maryland. Founded in 1866 as Maryland's first training school for teachers, Towson University is a part of the University System of Maryland. Since its founding, the university h ...

, earning a B.S. in wildlife biology in 1979. She received an M.S. in wildlife ecology from the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...

Career

Clark has been a lifelong participant in the

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted f ...

. As a college student, she spent a summer at

Aberdeen Proving Ground Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) (sometimes erroneously called Aberdeen Proving ''Grounds'') is a U.S. Army facility located adjacent to Aberdeen, Harford County, Maryland, United States. More than 7,500 civilians and 5,000 military personnel work ...

s, where she released

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a cosmopolitan bird of prey ( raptor) in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey ...

s back into the wild as part of a national recovery effort. Twenty years later, as the director of the

United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

, she officially removed them from the federal list of endangered species due to the successful recovery efforts, in which she participated. Clark has a long career in conservation, both inside the government, mostly with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and with non-profit conservation organizations. In recognition of her expertise and achievements in endangered species conservation, President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (Birth name, né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 ...

appointed her as Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service) in 1997, a post which she held until 2001. During her tenure as director, Clark established 27 new refuges and added two million acres to the

National Wildlife Refuge National Wildlife Refuge System is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the system of public lands and waters set aside to ...

System. While director, the Service worked with Congress to pass th
National Wildlife Refuge System Improvements Act of 1997
establishing wildlife conservation as the main purpose of all refuges. The Service was involved in many successful efforts to recover imperiled wildlife during her tenure, including the

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same nich ...

gray wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

and the Aleutian Canada goose. As president and CEO o
Defenders of Wildlife
Clark has been at the forefront of endangered species and

habitat conservation Habitat conservation is a management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore habitats and prevent species extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range. It is a priority of many groups that cannot be easily characterized in ter ...

in the non-profit community. She has been frequently called on to testify o
Capitol Hill
providing guidance to members of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

conservation issues This is an alphabetical list of environmental issues, harmful aspects of human activity on the biophysical environment. They are loosely divided into causes, effects and mitigation, noting that effects are interconnected and can cause new effects ...

. Under her tenure, Defenders has played a key role in the reintroduction of

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North ...

to tribal reservations, secured protections for

right whale Right whales are three species of large baleen whales of the genus ''Eubalaena'': the North Atlantic right whale (''E. glacialis''), the North Pacific right whale (''E. japonica'') and the Southern right whale (''E. australis''). They are clas ...

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhe ...

s and

piping plover The piping plover (''Charadrius melodus'') is a small sand-colored, sparrow-sized shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange-red legs, a black band across the forehead from ...

s and many other species and habitats. Workers at Defenders credit Clark with creating a toxic work environment and a "culture of fear" surrounding a 2021 effort to unionize the organization.

Honors and awards

In 2017 she was awarded the

Rachel Carson Award The Rachel Carson Award is awarded each spring by the National Audubon Society's Women in Conservation to recognize "women whose immense talent, expertise, and energy greatly advance conservation and the environmental movement locally and globally" ...

by the

Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...

for her life's work.

Works

Schlyer, Krista. ''Continental Divide: Wildlife, People and the Border Wall''. Texas A&M University Press.
Foreword by Jamie Rappaport Clark.
Huffington Post Blog – Jamie Rappaport Clark

References

External links

* C-SPAN 1997–present
Jamie Rappaport Clark testifying on Capitol Hill

Defenders of Wildlife

Endangered Species Act
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Jamie Rappaport 1950s births Year of birth missing (living people) Living people United States Fish and Wildlife Service personnel American nonprofit chief executives American women chief executives Towson University alumni University of Maryland, College Park alumni Activists from New York City 21st-century American women