| From the Secretary Home |
Several Changes
Dear Colleagues:
Thank you for your patience over the past few months as Eric and I have reacquainted ourselves with the work and people of DNR. After careful consideration, we are pleased to announce several changes that will position us to better take on these important challenges. The changes are fully effective for reporting purposes as of May 22, 2007.
You will find at http://intranet/orgchart.html our revised organizational chart. While I strongly believe that organizational structure is secondary in importance to our commitment to work together across disciplines and across boxes on a piece of paper, I would like to emphasize several aspects of this chart. First, we are reducing the number of assistant secretaries to three. This will place emphasis on the teambuilding across units in several broad areas. Please note that this draft chart is a starting point for additional organizational adjustments based on collaboration within our work force. We expect the newly appointed assistant secretaries to work with each other and their respective staff to refine the structure further over the next several weeks.
Secondly, we are adding a new Office of Sustainability oriented to long range strategic resource planning. This focus area will allow us to place greater emphasis, outside of the day to day operations of our line units, on development of systemic responses to our biggest natural resource challenges: growth management, climate change and Bay restoration. Additionally, this office will integrate our BayStat and StateStat leadership, allowing us to meet the Governor’s commitment to continuous progress measurement and program performance assessment.
Today, I am pleased to formally announce appointment of the people who will fill the assistant secretary roles. Two of these individuals are well known to you. I have great confidence in all three and am very pleased that they have agreed to take on these roles for the O’Malley-Brown Administration.
Frank Dawson has been appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary for Aquatic Resources. This area will continue to include many of the units supervised by Frank in his acting capacity, but is being expanded to include our Fisheries Service and a reconstituted Boating unit, which will refocus our commitment to an important segment of our recreational industry.
We have asked Kristin Saunders to take the leadership for a new grouping of our land based activities, including the Maryland Park Service, land acquisition, forestry and wildlife. This group will be asked in particular to look at better ways to integrate our public land planning and management efforts, while also doing a better job of focusing land acquisition where they will make the greatest difference in protecting and enhancing our Green Infrastructure.
Finally, Monica Johnson joined us last week as the Assistant Secretary for Mission Support. I worked with Monica at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission where she handled similar responsibilities in addition to working extensively in intergovernmental relations. Monica recently left the Commission and is in the process of completing her MBA at Johns Hopkins University. I can personally attest that she will fit right in with the work ethic and passion evident here at DNR. Please take a moment to stop by to meet and welcome Monica to our DNR team.
Please note also that the Natural Resources Police and Colonel George Johnson will report directly to Eric. This is due to their diverse and Department-wide mission and Eric’s professional experience with our law enforcement responsibilities.
In addition to the assistant secretary areas and our focus on strategic planning, there are several other focus areas that we plan to develop over time to address in a matrix fashion some emerging opportunities. These include an effort to better support Maryland’s resource based industries, ranging from forestry and fishing to outdoor recreation related tourism. These industries collectively create economic incentives and opportunities associated with natural resource conservation, in addition to making our natural resources accessible for people to use and enjoy.
Additionally, we expect to seek ways to better coordinate our Office of Communications and Marketing, Legislative Affairs, our conservation education efforts, and a new emphasis on federal affairs and interaction with local governments. Let me note also that I have asked Darlene Pisani to permanently assume responsibility for leadership of the Communications and Marketing functions, and that Emily Wilson has agreed to continue in her role as our Legislative Officer. Please expect a few other matrix teams to be established in the months ahead.
Finally, I particularly want to acknowledge the work and dedication of Mike Slattery, long an important contributor to our progress as an agency in many different roles over the years, and Tad Wood, who will each be transitioning into new roles.
Let me emphasize again two important points regarding this chart. First, beyond the basic structure, it is a work in progress. We are asking each of the assistant secretaries and unit directors to work together and with their units to evaluate the best alignment and make future recommendations regarding personnel. Secondly, organizational structures support us, but do not define us. Our commitment to work together toward common goals will define our success over time.
Thank you..John
May 22, 2007