Nancy Foster

Nancy Marie Foster was the director of the National Ocean Service. She is known for her work in protecting marine environments, linking conservation groups and fisherman, and expanding research in marine environments. Early life and education Nancy Foster was born in Electra, Texas, received her undergraduate degree from Texas Woman's College, and went on to earn a master's degree in marine biology from Texas Christian University. She earned her Ph.D. in marine biology from George Washington University in 1969. A Smithsonian associate in the late 1960s while at George Washington, she conducted a portion of her dissertation research with Meredith Leam Jones and Marian H. Pettibone at the Smithsonian Institution. She wrote several papers on polychaetes at George Washington. Career Foster worked at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service In 1969, while still associated with the Smithsonian Institution she became chair of the biology department at Dunbarton College of the Holy Cross, a position she held into the 1970s. Her students included Cynthia Ahearn. Foster joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1977, working in its Research and Development Office. She was the director of the Office of Protected Resources in NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) from 1986 until 1993, subsequently advancing to the position of deputy assistant administrator of the NMFS by 1997. While at the NMFS, she established NOAA's Chesapeake Bay Office in Annapolis, Maryland, and NOAA's Office of Habitat Conservation.