Dr. Mamie Parker is a woman of many firsts. Dr. Parker has been called “an uncommon woman in uncommon places.” She is the first Arkansan to rise to the level of Assistant Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the first African-American to do so. And she did it by starting at the bottom, as a fishery biologist at a national fish hatchery in Wisconsin.

Mamie and Gov. Huckabee	Mamie Speaking

This Wilmot native was born in a cotton field, not a hospital. She was her mother Cora’s last chance for a boy which she intended to name in honor of President Eisenhower for his efforts to advance civil rights. As fate would have it, Dr. Parker was born on Ike’s birthday, and she was named in honor of the first lady.

She was among the first African-American students to attend integrated schools in Wilmot, Arkansas, an experience that she says helped set her on a course of success going and growing with another culture that she would have otherwise not been exposed to. She attended the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

She was the first African-American to serve as a Deputy Regional Director, and Regional Director in the USFWS. A woman, and a southerner, in national leadership positions typically dominated by men – she is uncommon.

Her grounding philosophy is a scarcity, too. She has led her employees with an anchored belief that people are important – a belief nested in her humble beginnings. That belief was manifest while she served as Regional Director of the New England Region, creating the Invest in People Initiative. She counts among her conservation successes while Regional Director, listing the Atlantic salmon as an endangered species to protect the magnificent game fish.

She’s left other imprints, leading the effort in creating the first Arkansas Ecological Services Field Office in Conway, and having formerly supervised trout, bass, walleye, paddlefish and sturgeon propagation on three national fish hatcheries in Arkansas.

As USFWS Assistant Director – Fisheries and Habitat Conservation, she strives to elevate the importance of the fisheries program, and is doing so with another first, standing in the fore of a national fish habitat plan, that will focus efforts to stave aquatic habitat degradation across the entire nation.

Dr. Parker remembers fondly fishing south Arkansas waters for grinner, carp, and catfish with her mother – her foundation stone – and she carries with her today the lessons imparted.

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Dr. Mamie Parker. A fishery biologist and avid angler from Wilmot, she rose to become the Assistant Director of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the first Arkansan and African-American to do so. She supervises fish culture throughout the nation, including 3 Arkansas national fish hatcheries and addressed serious conservation needs by leading the efforts in creating a USFWS field office in Conway.