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Career History and Highlights: Ms. Kinsinger is responsible for USGS research and monitoring on freshwater, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems and the human and fish and wildlife communities they support.

Ms. Kinsinger has held numerous positions during her 16 years with the USGS. These include Regional Director for the Western Region of the USGS, where beginning in 2007, she oversaw the region's scientific activities related to biological, hydrological, geological, and geographic research and assessments. She was also the Western Regional Biologist and was responsible for the cross-disciplinary USGS research strategy in the Pacific Northwest. From 1998 until 2001, she worked 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 U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Fisheries Contaminant Research Center (now the USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center), the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the National Biological Survey.

Education: Ms. Kinsinger holds a bachelor's in resource science from the University of California, Davis, and a master's in natural resources economics and policy from Yale University.