Naimah Aziz

Naimah Aziz is the Head of the Division of Management Authority and has almost 20 years of experience in regulating international trade. She spent over half of that time with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement Wildlife Inspection Program. Naimah's area of jurisdiction included John F. Kennedy International Airport, which is the largest wildlife port in the nation. As a wildlife inspector, she conducted thousands of inspections and opened hundreds of investigations into the illegal wildlife trade, wildlife trafficking, inhumane transport of live wildlife, live animal smuggling, and live CITES plant trafficking. Naimah has been a team leader and instructor on several international training missions to Southern and West Africa, focusing on building wildlife law enforcement capacity of rangers, national police, magistrates, and customs officers. In her current role, Naimah is responsible for the operations of the Division of Management Authority, which includes the Branch of Permits and the Wildlife Trade and Conservation Branch. She has served as Head of the U.S. Delegation to the 75th and 76th meeting of the Standing Committee to CITES, Senior Advisor to the U.S. Head of Delegation to the 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties, and Chair of the Standing Committee for its 77th meeting. In addition to international policy, Naimah is currently focused on optimizing the International Affairs Permitting Program to meet the current and future needs of our external and internal stakeholders. She considers herself blessed to be part of the global wildlife conservation community and counts her international work along with employee development as cornerstones of her career thus far. Naimah holds a bachelor’s in biology from the University of Massachusetts and a master’s in environmental management from Duke University. She also completed a Global Policy Energy, Economy, and Environment fellowship with the Duke University Stanford School of Public Policy.

Languages spoken: English