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Career History and Highlights:Ms. Kinsinger oversees science and administrative activities for the USGS's Western Region, headquartered in Seattle, Wash. Her particular interests are in strengthening and building partnerships with the Department of the Interior and other Federal and State agencies, and raising outside awareness of the USGS's unique capabilities to guide landscape-level science in restoring large ecosystems, such as Puget Sound.

Ms. Kinsinger has been the USGS Western Regional Director since June, 2007, and previously served for 18 months as Acting Regional Director. Before that, she served as Western Regional Biologist, overseeing the activities of the USGS's biological science centers. She also was responsible for the cross-disciplinary USGS research strategy in the Pacific Northwest. From 1998 until 2001, she served at USGS headquarters in Reston, Va., in the Associate Director for Biology's office, and as Chief of Strategic Planning and Analysis in the Director's office. She joined the USGS in 1995, and for the next three years served as director of the agency's Western Ecological Research Center in Davis, Calif.

Before joining the USGS, she worked for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Biological Survey.

Education: Ms. Kinsinger received a bachelor's degree in resource science from the University of California at Davis and a master's degree in forestry and environmental studies from Yale University.