Former Planning Commissioner Beulah Dalmida-Smith is back at the department as director of the Fish and Wildlife Division. She started Monday.
"It’s definitely a challenge, but I’m getting settled and learning about the issues at hand," she said Wednesday.
And those issues are many, she said. For starters, she plans to work with fishermen and scientists to forge the best fisheries regulations when the matter is on the agenda at the fall Caribbean Fishery Management Council meeting.
Additionally, she said she plans to bring the division up to snuff when it comes to meeting federal deadlines.
She’s also getting to know her staff. In addition to Dalmida-Smith, Fish and Wildlife has a dozen people working on St. Thomas and five on St. Croix.
"It’s a small group of really good people," she said.
Planning Commissioner Robert Mathes said in a news release that he was glad to have her on the job.
"Mrs. Dalmida-Smith comes to the department with great academic credentials and a vast amount of experience, all essential to leading this division," Mathes said.
She replaces David Olsen, who left Fish and Wildlife in March 2008.
Dalmida-Smith is wrapping up work on her doctorate in environmental and land-use planning from the University of North Carolina. She also holds a master’s degree in environmental science and conservation biology from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree in marine biology from the University of the Virgin Islands.
She attended Guy Benjamin and Julius E. Sprauve Schools on St. John and graduated from Charlotte Amalie High School on St. Thomas.
In addition to working as the Planning Commissioner from 1995 to 1998 under former Gov. Roy L. Schneider, she worked for National Park Service facilities on St. Thomas and St. John. She started her Park Service career as a seasonal ranger on St. John in 1982 but later served as special assistant to the superintendents at Buck Island Reef National Monument on St. Croix and V.I. National Park on St. John.
She was also a founding board member of the John’s Folly Learning Institute and remains involved with the organization, she said, teaching a class there earlier this summer.
Dalmida-Smith calls Coral Bay, St. John home, but she’s currently living on St. Thomas with daughter Whitney, 15, and Sage, 3, until she gets her feet wet on the job. She also has a son, Winston, 25, who lives in Pittsburgh.
She’s delighted to be back in the Virgin Islands.
"It’s always good to come home," she said.
