USFWS Press Release(Susan White - Photo credit USFWS)
Continuing her 21-year career in the management of marine protected areas, Susan White has been named the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's new project leader for the Pacific Reefs National Wildlife Refuge Complex, which overseas the three newest marine national monuments in the Pacific.
She will be transferring into her new role on May 9 after serving for the past three years as the FWS Superintendent for the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in Hawaii.
“We are fortunate to have someone with Ms. White's experience to lead out expanded opportunities for managing the Rose Atoll, Pacific Remote Islands, and Marianas Trench Marine National Monuments,” said Barry Stieglitz, project leader for the Hawaiian and Pacific Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. “These vast areas-more than 125 million acres-are the nation's last frontiers for the wildlife conservation and scientific exploration.”
In her new role, White will be working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the governments of American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam, as well as partners from private organizations, universities and the public, to implement the presidential proclamations establishing the three marine national monuments.
As a Papahanaumokuakea superintendent, White worked with her co-managers from NOAA, Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to develop and implement the Papahanaumokuakea Monument Management Plan and nominate the monument as a World Heritage site. She directly supervised management and operations of the two National Wildlife Refuges (Midway Atoll and Hawaiian Islands) within the monument, focusing on conservation of the 14 million seabirds, 23 threatened or endangered species, native habitats, sacred cultural sites, and iconic World War II historic resources.
Prior to going to Hawaii in 2001, White helped supervise managers of 28 refuges in Florida, Mississippi, and southern Alabama and also coordinated marine conservations initiatives. From 2002 through 2005, she was the deputy project leader at J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge in coastal southwestern Florida.
She served as the national marine protected area and coral reef program coordinator at the headquarters of the FWS National Wildlife Refuge System between 2000 and 2002, leading FWS and the Department of the Interior in interdepartmental implementation of the executive orders on coral reef protection and marine protected area. She also served as the department's staff point of contact for the Coral Reef Task Force and the National Commission on Ocean Policy. She has been a member of the IUCN's World Commission on Protected Area since 1990. Prior to her Washington, D.C., responsibilities, White has had a long history of working on islands, including the Florida Keys and Saba Marine Park in the Dutch West Indies.
