Gary Frazer
Assistant Director for Fisheries and Habitat Conservation
Gary Frazer is the Assistant Director for Fisheries and Habitat Conservation, assuming that position in January 2008. As Assistant Director, Gary is responsible for overseeing policy direction and management of the National Fish Hatchery System, fish health and fish technology centers, fisheries management, aquatic invasive species and injurious wildlife, habitat restoration programs, environmental contaminants, natural resource damage assessment and restoration, environmental review of development activities, and wetlands inventory and mapping.
Gary started his career with the Service in 1984 as a field biologist in the Ecological Services field office in Virginia. He transferred to the Washington Office in 1989, initially as a staff person for wetland regulatory issues. While in Washington he spent a year on detail to the Senate Environment Committee, served as acting deputy chief for the Division of Habitat Conservation, and then worked as special assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks for three years. He left Washington in 1994 to become field supervisor of the Ecological Services field office in Columbia, Missouri. Gary returned to Washington in 1998 as Deputy Assistant Director for the Ecological Services program. He served as Assistant Director for Endangered Species from 1999 to 2004, where he was responsible for carrying out policy development and management of all aspects of the Endangered Species program. From 2004 to 2007, Gary served as the Service’s liaison to the U.S. Geological Survey, where he worked to broaden and strengthen effective communication and partnerships between the two agencies.
Gary was born and raised in a small farming community in southeastern Iowa. He earned a B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology from Iowa State University in 1977 and an M.S. degree in Forestry with a Wildlife Specialty from Purdue University in 1981. Gary and his wife and two children live in Herndon, Virginia.