Yellowstone Superintendent Honored By National Audubon Society

Suzanne Lewis recipient of 2010 Rachel Carson Award

Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Suzanne Lewis was honored today by the National Audubon Society for her contributions to conservation.

Lewis received the 2010 Rachel Carson Award at a ceremony held as part of Audubon’s annual Women in Conservation Luncheon, held at The Plaza Hotel in New York City. She is the first National Park Service employee to receive the award.

Also honored this year were Actress, Director, Writer & Environmental Activist Isabella Rossellini, Dr. Beth Stevens, Senior Vice President Environmental Affairs, Disney World Wide Services, and Fernanda M. Kellogg, President of The Tiffany & Co. Foundation.

The award is named in honor of Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book “Silent Spring” drew international attention to the damage caused by pesticide use, and which is credited with helping launch the modern environmental movement.

Suzanne Lewis began her National Park Service career as a seasonal park ranger at Gulf Islands National Seashore in 1978. Over the course of more than three decades, she has served in a variety of increasingly responsible positions including an international assignment to Haiti, acting superintendent at Christiansted National Historic Site and Buck Island Reef National Monument in the U.S. Virgin Islands, superintendent of Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in Florida, superintendent of Chatahoochee River National Recreation Area in Georgia, and superintendent of Glacier National Park, Montana. Lewis, the first female superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, has guided operations at the world’s first national park since February 2002.

The National Audubon Society is one of the oldest conservation organizations in the world, and was named in honor of famous ornithologist and naturalist John James Audubon. Its mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity.

Audubon has been recognizing outstanding women in conservation with the Rachel Carson Award since 2004.