Jamie Rappaport Clark (born 1957 or 1958)[1] is an American conservationist and former government official formerly working as the president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife.[2] She joined the organization as executive vice president in 2004.[3] In 2024, Andrew Bowman was appointed as the new president of Defenders of Wildlife.[4][5]
Clark has a long career in conservation, both inside the government, mostly with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and with non-profit conservation organizations.[6][9]
As president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, Clark has been at the forefront of endangered species and habitat conservation in the non-profit community.[18][19] She has been frequently called on to testify on Capitol Hill, providing guidance to members of Congress on conservation issues.[20] Under her tenure, Defenders has played a key role in the reintroduction of bison to tribal reservations,[21][22] secured protections for right whales,[23][24]sea turtles and piping plovers[25] and many other species and habitats.[26] In November 2023, Clark announced her intention to step down as President and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife sometime in 2024.[27]
Labor disputes
While under Clark’s leadership, Defenders of Wildlife gained a reputation for toxic work culture. Employees criticized Clark for perpetuating an internal “culture of fear” within the organization.[28] The term was coined in a report summarizing the results of an internal survey of 144 staff members by the Avarna Group in 2021. “When asked who staff were afraid of, the primary source of fear was not immediate supervisors, but specific individuals on the Executive Team, including the CEO.”[29] On March 29, 2021, management staff spanning several departments at Defenders of Wildlife wrote a group letter to Clark citing efforts by Defenders of Wildlife’s executive team to sanitize the Avarna Group’s report. The letter also censured the executive team for downplaying, ignoring, or rejecting consistent themes of fear in previous organizational assessments conducted by the Raben Group and Stratton Consulting Group.[30] Defenders staff unionized with Office of Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) in July 2021. Clark refused to voluntarily recognize the union, Defenders United,[31] triggering an election sponsored by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in 2021.[32][33]
Matters worsened in 2022; according to an article by to Politico, “current and former staff blame Defenders CEO Jamie Rappaport Clark for setting the tone and establishing a ‘culture of fear’ within the organization. Upsetting Clark over even minor issues, they say, can result in getting fired.”[34] In August 2022, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found Defenders of Wildlife management had violated labor law by terminating a former employee for their union organizing efforts, failing and refusing to provide the staff union with information needed for contract bargaining, and bypassing the union and direct dealing with staff. [35][36][37][38] Clark's name is listed alongside other Defenders of Wildlife senior managers as "supervisors of Respondent" in the subsequent Consolidated Complaint issued by the NLRB in December 2022.[39][40] In protest of these violations, the staff union held a 3 day rally in front of Defenders HQ in Washington, DC, and issued a public petition in February 2023 calling for Clark to negotiate a fair contract or resign as CEO, which garnered over 500 signatures.[41]
The above charges were settled between the parties in early 2023.[42][43] As of July 2024, however, several subsequent unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against Defenders of Wildlife management are still pending investigation by the NLRB.[44] According to the staff union, Clark deprived union members of access to improved leave benefits[45] and annual merit increases in late 2023.[46] Failed negotiations to resolve these issues led the union engaging in a 2-day ULP strike on July 9-10, 2024 — the first in the organization's 77-year history.[47][48][49]
As of July 2024, Clark had an approval rating of 26% on Glassdoor.[50]
^Bowlin, Nick (October 28, 2022). "Feds claim Defenders of Wildlife unlawfully fired union-organizing staffer". High Country News. Retrieved May 27, 2024. At Defenders, however, the leadership resisted the staff's union push. In July 2021, when CEO Jamie Rappaport Clark was presented with a request to voluntarily recognize the union – more than 75% of the eligible staff had signed union cards – she refused to do so (several other prominent green groups voluntarily recognized staff unions).
