Valerie Fellows

Valerie graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point with a double major in Wildlife Management and Biology, and moved to the mid-Atlantic to do her graduate research at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, where she completed her graduate degree at the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore with a focus on contaminants and endangered species. She began her career with USFWS in 2001 as a writer/editor at the Chesapeake Bay Field Office in Annapolis, Maryland, building partnerships and handling some great media stories, and even got to be a part of the famous snakehead “frankenfish” story. Then she went to the USFWS Headquarters and spent 6 years as a Public Affairs Specialist and handled major media inquiries from all over the world, but leading the communications for the recovery of the bald eagle, 100th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s birth and listing of the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act were definitely some of her favorites.  Then she moved to the Ecological Services Program as a Communication Specialist, where she led the Endangered Species Act’s 40th Anniversary communication campaign, and served as the Program’s communication lead for 7 years. She joined the Migratory Bird Program in 2019 and continues to be excited about birds and committed to help our Program connect with our many publics as we work to conserve birds and their habitat.