Interview with Mamie Parker,

Regional Director, Northeast Region, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

By Sandra Martin

Vol. 22 Number 4,  2001

Women in Natural Resources:  Thanks very much for taking the time to speak with me.

Mamie Parker:  I really believe in what you're doing.  There are so many people, especially women and including women in this agency, that need to hear more about, and be inspired by, other women who have made it.  I think an article like this can even keep somebody from quitting.

WiNR:  Yes, sometimes it feels pretty nice to "connect" with others like yourself!

Parker:  I agree!  I think men take that for granted most of the time.

WiNR:  Would you tell us about your current position?  How long have you held it, and what do you do day to day?

Parker:  Sure.  I'm the Acting Regional Director in the Northeast Region of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.  We cover thirteen northeastern states from Maine down to Virginia and West Virginia.  I came to this position at the end of 1999.  I moved here from the Washington Office where I worked for the Director and Deputy Director of the agency.  That was a highly political environment, and I was happy to leave that atmosphere behind.  I was recruited for the position of Assistant Regional Director by the former Regional Director, Ron Lamberson.  When I accepted the position, I thought I'd have several years to learn about the position I held, and also about the Regional Director position, and basically lead a reasonably relaxed professional life for a while.

            Then, just a few months after I arrived, Ron called me in and told me, "I'm getting ready to retire."  And so, my whole life changed!  He did retire, and in June 2000 I was put into the Acting Regional Director position.  In October, the position was advertised and I was encouraged to apply, which I did.  I was selected as Regional Director in December, and the position was approved, but not confirmed, in Personnel in the agency.  Then, the new administration came in, and asked to review all positions that had been filled prior to the other administration leaving.  Mine was one of those.  Since that time, I have been awaiting confirmation.

[Note:  Secretary Gale Norton approved Parker's selection as Regional Director in September 2001.]

            Day to day, I supervise a region where we have about 1,000 people in field offices throughout the region.  We have about 220 people working in the regional office.  We are located in western Massachusetts, near North Hampton.  We're not too far from the Berkshires, and it's really beautiful.

WiNR:  So, your area is not very urbanized?

Parker:  No, not at all.  Driving to work, I often see fox, coyote, and plenty of wonderful wildlife habitat.  It's very rural, but it's growing.  The first Walmart was just built locally.  We're about 30 miles from Springfield, which is a metropolitan area.  Boston is about 80 miles east.

WiNR:  Will you tell us about your background and professional history?

Parker:  I grew up in southern Arkansas.  My mother was an avid angler and outdoorswoman.  I think she would have been the "Oprah of the Outdoors," but it was the 1950s and too early for that!  I'm the youngest of my parents' eleven children, and so I spent a lot of time with my mother, and that's how I started getting an interest in being in an outdoor field for a living. 

I went to school at the University of Arkansas in Biology, and while I was a student I was recruited into the USFWS Coop program.  When I graduated, I moved into a full time position with the agency.  This is my 24^th year with USFWS.  It's gone fast!

I first worked in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, with every intention of heading back south as soon as I could.  But when I left Lacrosse, I moved to New London, Minnesota to work at a USFWS National Fish Hatchery.  Again hoping to go south, my next position ended up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where I worked on federal projects with the Army Corps of Engineers on the Great Lakes.  Next, I moved to the Lake Mills National Fish Hatchery, near Madison, Wisconsin.  I next moved to Columbia, Missouri, where I worked a lot on the Mississippi River and smaller streams in southern Missouri.  I was very involved in the endangered species program there.  

In 1990 I moved to the Midwest Regional Office in Minneapolis.  There, I did work similar to that I had done in the past, but was more of a regional coordinator for that work, supporting the biologists out in the field.

WiNR:  Well, when you began your career, you must have really felt like a pioneer: I'll bet you were often the only woman in your agency office, or at least the only woman of color. 

Parker:   And the only southerner!  I sometimes think the hardest part of my career has been in being a pioneer.  Pioneers can be lonely.  And, there's more pressure on pioneers not to quit.     

WiNR:  As you moved about in the earlier years of your career, exactly what kind of work were you doing for the agency?   

Parker:  I worked for several national fish hatcheries, then I reviewed construction projects, inventorying sites to see what kinds of habitat and wildlife were present, and doing a lot of long-term analyses to see what the impact of these projects would be on the environment.  I worked with a lot of farmers, in what was back then called the Private Lands Program, to find ways that they could enhance the wetlands that were on their property to improve the habitat for wildlife.

            I remained in my position in Minneapolis until 1996, when I finally moved south to Atlanta.  And I hated it!  The south had changed from what I remembered from 20 years earlier.  Sometimes you think you know what you want, but when you get it—well, you just realize you have to be adaptable!  My area of responsibility was working in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and I still found the people to be wonderful.  And, I could "speak the language!"  This was not always the case when I lived in the north, and sometimes it was hard for people to understand my southern drawl.

            At that point, I thought about leaving the USFWS.  I was restless and looking for something different to do.  I considered teaching very seriously.  I believe it's important to do as Maya Angelou says—when you learn, you should teach, when you get, you should give.  Pass it on! 

I thought it might be time for me to pass it on.  I was especially interested in getting a new group—a new generation—of women, especially women of color, interested in natural resources.

But on the day I was ready to give my letter of resignation, I got a phone call from the Director's Office in Washington D.C.  They were calling to offer me a really prime position—the best position, in my mind, in D.C.  So, in 1998 I went to work in the Director's Office as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Director and Director.  I had worked in Fisheries and Ecological Services in the USFWS, and this position gave me a chance to see the whole organization and to see how the decision makers at the top use the biology and integrate politics.  Also, there are about 900 people working in the Washington Office, and I love people in this agency!  I thought it would be a good chance to meet people from throughout the entire agency.  

WiNR:  What did you think about living in Washington D.C.?  You seem very enthusiastic about the rural aspects of your present locale, and that does not describe D.C.! 

Parker:  Yes, if I had to list the two hardest things about my position there, they would be the fact that I had a terrible commute to my job—I lived out in northern Virginia—and I didn't really get to do much more than work.  I love to volunteer out in  the community, and in Washington I worked from 6 am to 6 pm, and it was sometimes 7 or 7:30 by the time I could get home.  I barely knew my neighbors, let alone had time to get out into my community.

            The pace of work in Washington doesn't lend itself to making good friends, either.  Everyone is moving so fast!  I think I felt a little shell-shocked, like I was loosing my self-esteem because I was often surrounded by people who appeared to have so much!  My agency wanted me, like all employees in D.C., to stay at least two years to get adequate experience, but I barely made it! 

            I'm certainly glad that I stayed with the agency all these years, though, because it finally led me to a position where I could really help.  I've had a goal for a long time of getting to a position where I could help the upper echelons become aware of the value of all people, regardless of gender, color, or rank. 

I mean, the way administrative personnel are treated sometimes!  We just had a workshop for all the secretaries from the regional office in May, that we called "Corresponding with the Outdoors."  We had some correspondence training in the morning, and in the afternoon we exposed them to some of the things that the biologists in the agency do.  The people who attended got to participate in a lot of outdoor activities, such as bird watching, looking for edible plants, and kayaking and canoeing.

It's my goal to make all workers feel valued, and make the agency more inclusive.  This can start with something as simple as speaking to these workers.  I've walked around offices with some of the managers, and watched them ignore the secretaries and the maintenance workers—not even acknowledge their presence. 

I feel like these men and women are my mothers, and my sisters and brothers, and when I spoke to the group, I cried because it had been my vision for some 20 years or more to allow this group of agency workers to see what the field work was like.  I asked those attending to tell me some of their "highs and lows," and one woman said, "We're hoping that some of the managers back at our offices will really, really miss us while we're gone." 

The employees are already begging for more, and we're planning the same kind of workshop for next year, where we'll combine training on improved customer service with outdoor activities.    

WiNR:  Do you envision expanding this approach to your field offices, or will you continue to provide it only for your Regional Office employees? 

Parker:  Well, for now, we'll focus on the regional office.  Out in our field offices, luckily, many of the administrative employees get a taste of the field work just because they work in the rural areas.

            These training workshops are part of our Invest in People initiative.  About a year ago we called in the Gallup people to do a survey for us.  They polled the employees of the region, asking questions about how they felt about their place in the work environment, and how they were treated.  These included, "Does my opinion seem to count?", "Does somebody at work talk to me about my development?" and "Does someone care about me at work?"  The question that we got the lowest scores in response was about praise and recognition.  And so, we are focussing on improving that situation this year.  Each manager throughout the region is brainstorming ways to show their employees appreciation.  Our first thoughts were, "They'd like to have monetary awards," but that's not true, all the time.  We have found that we need to individualize the kind of praise that employees need.

            All of it sounded so simple to me!  But, people weren't doing these simple things.   

WiNR:  Was there a retention problem in the region that led you to conduct the survey? 

Parker:  Actually, we were more focused on recruitment.  We want to recruit the best people out of all the other regions!  I want to steal some employees from other regions!  [laughter]         

            But, I found this void in the region and felt we needed to do something about it.  The people who work here are excellent biologists and great managers, but I was looking for what else was needed to make this the best place to work.  So, you're right—we do need this to both keep people here, as well as recruit good people to the region.

            Another thing we found from our survey was that people want more mentoring and coaching.  We started a whole new mentoring program where we are matching 2 and 3-year employees to employees with 15-30 years in service.  I've been so pleased to hear from some of these more experienced employees about how much they are enjoying the program.  I think many of them are getting more out of the mentoring relationship than the newer employees are!  We let the mentoring program participants go away for a 3-day workshop that provides some training, but it's really an opportunity for bonding.

            The final part of our Invest in People program is developing employee guides providing more information about employment benefits and about other aspects of our agency employment.  That would include how to do your best in a Performance Appraisal, which is done for each employee annually.  Now, there already is a lot of information on these topics available to employees, but we are preparing brief, easy-to-digest brochures that people can read quickly.

            I'm really excited about the whole initiative.  In fact, the other regions in our agency have been asking about it.  Gallup briefed other regions on the entire survey program, but more importantly, we've been hearing directly from employees asking that we inform their own Regional Director about the Invest in People Initiative.

            Another area of my responsibility is working with Congress.  We have many interesting congressional issues in the northeast.  Some influential Members are from our region, including Senator Jeffords from Vermont, Senator Clinton from New York, Senator Lieberman from Connecticut, Senator Kennedy from Massachusetts, and Senator Leahy from Vermont. 

WiNR:  And these Members of Congress have some special interests, do they?  

Parker:  Yes, they do!  And so we do a lot of outreach work with them. 

Also, I supervise twelve Assistant Regional Directors, and at the beginning of the year, we go around the room and talk about our New Year's Resolutions, which of course are really just work priorities.  We don't want to call them that, though, because that sounds really boring!  We come up with my Resolutions, based on all of theirs, and then they keep their own, too. 

The priorities in our region follow The Three P's: our people, our partners, and promoting our successes.  This year, we are working on these Three P's with our Invest in People Initiative for our people, and promoting stronger partnerships with state fish and wildlife agencies.  We have federal partners that we work closely with, but this year we are really going to work on enhancing our relationships with our state partners.  The final P, promoting successes, involves finding more ways to get our stories out.  Our people are very modest and shy, and many chose to work for this agency because they like to work with "the critters" and not especially with people.  So, telling our success stories often falls to the bottom of the list of things to do for many of our people. 

WiNR:  What success stories would you like to tell us about? 

Parker:  An example involves our Silvio Conte National Wildlife Refuge along the Connecticut River.  The refuge involves about 410 miles along the river through the Connecticut River valley, and we have not had to buy all the land to protect the wildlife habitat there.  That's a lot of land, and we could never have purchased of all of it.  Instead, we found focus areas and brought in our partners to help us protect certain spots.  This non-traditional refuge has fewer acquisition boundaries than many National Wildlife Refuges throughout the country.  This is a whole new alternative to land acquisition.  Rather than the federal government owning everything, we are relying on local groups and governments to protect key habitats and areas; showing them how, and giving them some resources to help them do so.  This refuge is in four states; Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.  Beth Geottel is the manager there and she really does a terrific job. 

WiNR:  Do you see this position as the pinnacle of your career?  That is, do you have any further goals for yourself? 

Parker:  Yes, I'd still like to go and teach.  I'd like to teach 8^th grade science. 

WiNR:  That is wonderful to hear—very refreshing!  I'm certain you would be welcomed—they are always looking for teachers, aren't they? 

Parker:  I think a lot about my teachers and what a positive affect they had on my life.  Teachers don't get the respect or the pay that they deserve.  I don't think you go into education for the money, but I don't think you go into natural resources for the money, either!

            For myself, I have no further career aspirations in federal resource management.  In fact, my preference is to "lead from behind," and I would have been very comfortable remaining the Deputy here.  So, I think I'm now beyond my expectations!           

WiNR:  You bring a unique viewpoint to the upper levels of management in your agency.  You've told us a lot about your region's focus on recruitment and retention issues with your Invest in People programs.  Is diversity in the workforce part of the discussion going on in your region? 

Parker:  I've seen the focus on these issues go up and down.  Right now, it's certainly a topic of discussion, but I think that as we head into an era of belt-tightening and possibly down-sizing the agency, I believe minority recruitment will suffer.  It costs money to do the kind of recruitment we need to do to get new people into the organization, and I think the emphasis is going to be on "the most economically feasible" way to recruit.           

WiNR:  That's not good to hear.  I feel that no matter how it happens, if you get more people who are different into a group, it's good for everybody.  It's good for the people who get the jobs, of course, but it's also good for the people with the uncomfortable problem of dealing with someone that they never had to before.     

Parker:  There's so much to learn from each other!  For instance, I think that lots of people that I come in contact with learn from me about the southern culture, and about the African-American culture.  And I learn a lot from them!  I think I play the role of an "ambassador" from my culture, sometimes, in the workplaces I've been in, and sometimes the role can be difficult.  Most people I work with and have met over the years with the agency have treated me well, but I've had some negative experiences, too.

            Once, in Washington D.C., a man refused to ride in the elevator with me because he thought I was in the wrong parking lot.  He said that the lot I parked in was only for V.I.P.s and he was trying to figure out, how did I get in there!  So, there are still stereotypes to be dealt with.

But generally, I think racism and sexism these days is much more covert and harder to combat.  I don't know the solution, but a lot of it has to do with our own attitudes—how we accept that racism or sexism. 

WiNR:  One important tool is just letting them get to know you.  And, Dr. Parker—you are a very approachable person!  I can just imagine that when someone first meets you, after a few minutes, they probably feel that they really have gotten to know a little bit about you.  They can learn so much, not only about you, but about where you came from.  I don't know of a better way of changing people's minds than having them change their own mind. 

Parker:  When I was living in a small town in Minnesota, one day I was walking on the street.  A young girl with her mother saw me, and said, "Look, Mama, there's a chocolate one!"  I smiled at her and told her to come on over and take a look.  She wanted to feel my arms, and I could have easily had a chip on my shoulder and made this into an ugly experience instead of the charming conversation that we had.  I saw it as another opportunity for me to share, and I try very much to do that.  It helps to change the way people see you and what they think of you.  It's been a challenge, but it's worked for me.  I'd like to see other women realize that if you try that kind of approach first, you'll be able to win them over!  I guess I've been blessed with the kind of personality that makes people want to get to know me better.

            In spite of everything, and I've gone through sexism, racism, weight loss, weight gain, hair loss, even hair gain [laughter], but if I could do it over again, I wouldn't change a thing.Well, on second thought, I might work on balancing my personal life better with my professional life. 

            I have a real need to get out in the community wherever I live, and so I've joined community organizations to help me do that.  I belong to one group that has a mentoring program working with at-risk girls ages 12 to 15.  We take the girls out on wildlife watching trips—on retreats where we can grab frogs and climb trees.  In the evenings, we talk to the girls about things like personal hygiene and social skills.  We did a workshop on healthy choices, and we talked not just about food choices, but also about choosing healthy friends and relationships; staying away from "use and abuse."  We just had a graduation ceremony for a group, and the girls all wear formals.  For many of them, it's their first opportunity to dress up.  Some of the girls are from shelters or are homeless. 

Doing this kind of volunteer work inspires me to keep going and growing, as I like to say, and I think that's a big part of life!