Aurelia S. Giacometto

Aurelia Skipwith Giacometto serves as Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. She served as Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) from December 2019 to January 2021.

She serves as Chair of Ramaco Resource’s Technology Committee; Ramaco Resources is a publicly-traded metallurgical coal company with a division dedicated to discovering new uses of coal and developing its recent discovery of rare earth element resource. She is a biologist and a lawyer receiving a Bachelor of Science in Biology (Howard University), a Master of Science in Molecular Genetics (Purdue University), and a law degree (University of Kentucky). Giacometto has over 15 years of experience in regulatory sciences, including Fortune 100 and private companies and non-profit organizations.

Aurelia worked as a biologist at Monsanto, now the Bayer Corporation, developing environmentally sustainable crops, and later obtained her law degree to address the legal and regulatory hindrances of using new science technologies.

In 2017, Aurelia entered government service as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of the Interior, where she forged relationships with many organizations to implement policies that gave the American public more access to federal lands, programs, and more freedoms. As 22nd Director of the FWS, she led the 8500-employee agency with over 850 million acres of land and water to revolutionize business operations, improve service and grant more access to the American people.

Aurelia enjoys the outdoors, where you may find her fishing, hunting, or running. She holds a sub-3-hour marathon time.