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Welcome to the 2008 Briefing Series for Members of Congress and Staff

Previous Congressional Briefings

Speaker Biographies

Pam Fuller

Pam Fuller is the program leader for the USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Program, which maintains a nationwide database and a web site of aquatic invaders.  She is author of the summary book "Nonindigenous Fishes Introduced into Inland Waters of the United States," which reviews the introductions of more than 500 species and looks at spatial and temporal patterns of these introductions.  She has been involved in numerous national and international invasive species research activities and work groups, particularly in the field of invasive species information management.  She collaborated with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center to develop NISbase, a distributed query system for aquatic invasive species databases, and is involved in the development of a global equivalent, the Global Invasive Species Information Network. She received degrees in zoology from SUNY Oswego (B.S.) and the University of Florida (M.S.).

Mike Pellant

Mike Pellant is the program coordinator for the Bureau of Land Management’s Great Basin Restoration Initiative. The aim of the GBRI is to reverse the downward ecological spiral of the Great Basin, which has been exacerbated by invasive species, such as cheatgrass and other noxious weeds, and the increase in wildfires. Mike has been with the Bureau of Land Management for 30 years. Prior to his current position as program coordinator for the GBRI, he worked as an ecologist at the BLM Idaho state office and as a range conservationist in Idaho and Utah. Mike is also an adjunct faculty member in the Biology Department at Boise State University. He received his B.S. in Biology and M.S. in Range Science from Fort Hays State University in Kansas.

Gary Whelan

Gary Whelan has worked for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for over twenty years. He is currently the Fish Production Manager for the Department’s Fisheries Division and also manages the Tribal Coordination Unit for the Fisheries Division. In addition, Gary is co-chair of the National Fish Habitat Initiative Science and Data Committee, co-chair of the American Fisheries Society Board of Professional Certification, chair of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission- Great Lakes Fish Health Committee, and president of the American Fisheries Society History Section. Gary’s degrees in Fisheries Management are from the University of Wyoming (B.S.) and the University of Missouri (M.S.).

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