Mollie H. Beattie of Grafton, Vermont, was nominated by President Bill Clinton to serve as Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 10, 1993.
Beattie came to the Service from The Richard A. Snelling Center for Government in Vermont, an institute for public policy and service, where she was Executive Director.
Prior to that position, she served as Deputy Secretary for Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources from 1989-90, with responsibility for fish and wildlife, forestry, public lands, water quality, and energy issues.
As Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation from 1985-89, Beattie was responsible for the administration of 250,000 acres of public land, including management of wildlife habitat areas, and the operation of 48 state parks. She developed policies and legislation on forestry, taxation of resource lands, recreation, public lands, wetlands, and pesticide use.
Beattie also was Program Director for the non-profit Windham Foundation from 1983-85, and in this capacity directed a series of seminars on critical issues facing the State of Vermont. She also managed 1,300 acres of farm and forest land for the Foundation with a primary emphasis on wildlife habitat improvement.
She taught resource management to private landowners for the University of Vermont Extension Service and served as Project Director for an experimental game bird habitat program. Beattie was a Research Assistant for the Dartmouth College Resources Policy Center, a Mountaineering Instructor for Colorado Outward Bound, Director of Publicity and Public Relations for the Domestic Capital Corporation, and a news reporter.
She has been a Board Member of the American Forestry Association, the Vermont Land Trust, and the Vermont Natural Resources Council. She was Vice-Chair of a Defenders of Wildlife commission on the condition and future of the National Wildlife Refuge System, served on several commissions on environmental regulation in Vermont, and chaired Vermont's Nonpoint Water Pollution Task Force.
Beattie holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York, and an M.S. degree in Forestry from the University of Vermont. She also earned an M.P.A. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1991.
A resident of Vermont since 1968, Beattie and her husband, Rick Schwolsky, still maintain their solar-powered home there.
Beattie is the first woman to serve as Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.