Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service

The following is a list of directors of the Fish and Wildlife Service (1940–1956) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (1956–present):^[1]

No.	Portrait	Director	Term start	Term end	Ref.
1		Ira Noel Gabrielson	1940	March 31, 1946	[2]
2		Albert Merrill Day	April 1, 1946	1953	[3]
3		John L. Farley	1953	1957
4		Daniel Hugo Janzen[a]	1957	1964
5		John S. Gottschalk	December 1, 1964	1970	[4]
6		Spencer H. Smith	1970	1973
7		Lynn Adams Greenwalt[b]	November 12, 1973	October 29, 1974	[5]
			October 30, 1974	1981	[6][7][8]
8		Robert A. Jantzen	November 17, 1981	March 15, 1985	[9][10]
9		Frank Harper Dunkle	1986	March 15, 1989	[11][12][13]
10		John F. Turner	1989	1993	[14][15]
11		Mollie Hanna Beattie	September 14, 1993	June 5, 1996	[16][17][18][19]
acting		John G. Rogers Jr.	June 5, 1996	July 31, 1997
12		Jamie Rappaport Clark	July 31, 1997	January 20, 2001	[20]
acting		Marshall Jones	January 20, 2001	February 21, 2002	[21]
13		Steven A. Williams	February 21, 2002	March 16, 2005	[22]
acting		Matthew J. "Matt" Hogan	March 16, 2005	October 12, 2005	[23]
14		H. Dale Hall	October 12, 2005	January 3, 2009	[24]
acting		Rowan W. Gould	January 3, 2009	September 1, 2009
15		Samuel D. "Sam" Hamilton III	September 1, 2009	February 20, 2010[c]	[25][26]
acting		Rowan W. Gould	February 21, 2010	June 30, 2011	[27]
16		Dan Ashe	July 1, 2011	January 19, 2017	[28]
acting		Jim Kurth	January 20, 2017	May 31, 2017
acting		Greg Sheehan	June 1, 2017	August 16, 2018	[29]
acting		Margaret Everson	October 23, 2018	January 6, 2020	[30]
17		Aurelia Skipwith	January 6, 2020	January 19, 2021	[31][32]
acting		Martha Williams	January 20, 2021	March 8, 2022
18			March 8, 2022	January 20, 2025	[33][34]
acting		Paul Souza	January 20, 2025	July 21, 2025	[35]
acting		Justin "J" Shirley	July 21,[citation needed] 2025	Incumbent
19		Brian Nesvik	confirmed, but yet to be sworn in		[36]

Table notes:

1. Father of evolutionary ecologist and conservationist Daniel H. Janzen.
2. Greenwalt had to be sworn in a second time due to a April 1974 Act of Congress that requires the FWS director be a presidential appointee subject to confirmation by the Senate instead of just being appointed by the Secretary of the Interior as previously done.
3. Died in office