The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced several changes in assignment for members of its leadership team. All of the positions involved are part of the governments Senior Executive Service, and have been approved by the Interior Departments Executive Review Board.
"The Service and I owe a great deal of gratitude to these leaders. They have served well in their current positions and have stepped up for the long term good of the Service," said Service Director H. Dale Hall.
The new assignments, which will take effect in the coming weeks, are as follows:
- Rowan Gould will become the career deputy director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Gould currently serves as the assistant director for Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration in Washington, DC.
- Ken Stansell, currently serving as the Services career deputy director, will step aside to become special assistant to the director, charged with providing policy guidance and advice and heading the Services workforce planning efforts.
- Ren Lohoefener, currently serving as regional director for the Services Pacific Region in Portland, Oregon, will become the new director of the California-Nevada Region in Sacramento, California.
- Robyn Thorson, who has served since 2003 as regional director for the Great Lakes/Big Rivers Region, headquartered at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, will replace Lohoefener as Pacific Region director in Portland. The Pacific Region includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Hawaii, and the U.S. Trust Territories in the Pacific Ocean.
- Tom Melius, currently serving as regional director for the Service's Alaska Region in Anchorage, will replace Thorson as regional director in Fort Snelling. The Great Lakes/Big Rivers Region includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
- Geoff Haskett will replace Melius as Alaska regional director. Haskett currently serves in Washington, DC as the assistant director for the National Wildlife Refuge System.
Rowan Gould holds a doctorate in fish pathology and fish biology from Oregon State University. He has extensive experience in Alaska, having served there as regional director from 2003 to 2006, as assistant regional director for Refuges and Wildlife from 1991-95 and as assistant regional director for Ecological Services and Fisheries from 1987-91. In 1989 and 1990, in addition to his normal duties, he was responsible for coordinating the Services activities in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and served as the Interior Departments representative to the inter-governmental oil spill damage assessment management team. Gould has also served as deputy regional director in Portland, deputy assistant director for Fisheries in Washington, D.C., and held several research positions within the Service.
Ken Stansell was selected as the Services career deputy director in March 2007, after serving as the acting deputy director since February 2006. Stansell began his career in 1974 as a research biologist with the South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department, where he established one of the first State endangered species conservation programs, in response to the newly enacted Endangered Species Act. He joined the Service in 1979, working in both the Federal Aid and Endangered Species programs in the Southeast Region. In 1987, he was selected for the Departmental Manager Training Program and transferred to Washington, D.C, where he held a series of management positions in both the Endangered Species and Ecological Services Programs. In 1990, Stansell began working in the international arena, administering the newly created African Elephant Conservation Act.
