Wendi Weber, North Atlantic-Appalachian Regional Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is among 15 winners of the inaugural Theodore Roosevelt Government Leadership Awards recognized Sept. 19 at the Washington National Cathedral by the Government Executive Media Group.
More than 200 distinguished leaders were nominated for the awards earlier this year.
Weber was lauded for making significant investments in people at all organizational levels and creating a program to strengthen supervisory excellence, resulting in increased employee engagement and productivity. As a result, her 2018 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey engagement scores topped 70 percent—among the highest in the federal government.
“Wendi's commitment to supporting the people whose work she oversees stood out to our selection committee. She is clearly dedicated not only to the mission of the Fish and Wildlife Service, but to making her organization a great place to work,” said Tom Shoop, Government Executive Editor-in-Chief and chairman of the selection committee.
Weber has worked with supervisors to cultivate employee feedback to improve the workplace in the more than 130 offices she oversees. She also is a national leader in the agency’s effort to recruit and retain a diverse workforce. Last year, she hired 14 veterans, bringing the region’s veteran employment rate up to 28 percent of the total workforce. In her eight years as regional director, she also initiated a partnership with the Hispanic Access Foundation to employ Hispanic youth and a Career Development Internship Program, which won the Diversity Award from the Wildlife Society.
Weber has served in her current position since 2011. As regional director, she oversees Service activities in 13 states from Maine to Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Weber leads more than 800 Service employees working in more than 130 field offices, including 75 national wildlife refuges and 11 national fish hatcheries that protect more than 536,000 acres. She also oversees management of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which encompasses more than 3.1 million acres in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Weber joined the Service in 1998, beginning her career in Washington, D.C. in international affairs. After serving in various other regions and capacities in the agency's ecological services program, she came to the North Atlantic-Appalachian regional office as deputy regional director in 2007.
Prior to working for the Service, Weber worked for the states of Florida and Georgia as a field biologist.
Originally from Rochester, New York, Weber has a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Rhode Island and a master’s degree in fisheries from the University of Georgia.
For more information on the Theodore Roosevelt Government Leadership Awards, visit: https://www.govexec.com/feature/teddy-winners/
