It’s an open secret about Leslie Weldon to those who know her: She’s a nerd. “I gave up zombie apocalypse books and movies for Lent,” she said.

But it’s not just zombies, comic books (she's a fan of Storm) and science fiction: She’s nerdy about natural resources too. She is enthusiastic about all she’s learned in her career, and she’ll extoll the importance of engaging with land and community to anyone who will listen.

Leslie was born in Pullman, Washington, but with a father in the U.S. Air Force, her family moved a lot. She attended elementary school in Japan and then, after a move stateside, graduated high school in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Joining Youth Conservation Corps introduced her to natural resources during high school. She spent two summers  at Camp Rocky Knob in southwest Virginia, close to the North Carolina border, in what she called “the sticks.” She did trail work, improved recreation sites and completed other outdoor projects with the National Park Service while attending the residential camp.

She attended Virginia Tech to study biological sciences and came to the Forest Service via a summer job after her sophomore year in college. She traveled to the North Bend Ranger District of Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and served as a reforestation tech responsible for seedling survival surveys in areas replanted after harvesting. She notes that back then, harvesting translated to clear-cutting. She learned to walk through slash—a lot of it.

That experience taught Leslie that she wanted a career with the agency. She returned to the agency for a second summer, again on Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, as a fisheries biologist trainee. Back then, emphasis was shifting aquatic resources in the northwest, and the agency was hiring more employees in that series. It was early enough in her studies that Leslie was able to shift her emphasis area to ensure she had enough credits to be permanently hired in that area after she graduated. She credits good mentors for pointing her in the right direction.

After graduating in 1983, she found a permanent position on the White River Ranger District. Leslie saw a lot of changes in that time: She came on during what she calls the heyday of timber harvesting and road-building, practices that gradually shifted in the late ‘80s. She remembers conducting spotted owl inventories in areas where the agency planned to harvest timber in the early ‘80s before the Northwest Forest Plan went into effect, using colored pencils to designate nest areas on the map.

Leslie says it’s relationships she formed early on that made her want to stay with the Forest Service. People like Jim Doyle, fisheries biologist on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, served as agency guides and career mentors. Moving from suburban Maryland to Washington state was an entirely new experience, and mentor Marsha Kearney took 19-year-old Leslie, who “knew nothing,” under her wing. Leslie calls Marsha her lifeline and counts her a dear friend to this day.

She says her mentors took care of her until she could take care of herself. Employees welcomed her and wanted to see her grow into her goals and be successful. The Forest Service stole her heart through its people, she says, and she made friends early in her career that she still has today.

Leslie built her career by continually growing and reinventing herself. She moved cross-country for her job about 10 times and, in each case, she held a distinct position. She lived in Washington, Oregon, Montana and Washington, D.C.—bouncing between the field and the Washington Office. She also engaged with international programs work in Argentina, China, Mexico, Poland, Peru, Brazil and Canada. Willingness to learn and move allowed her to fulfill her career goals beyond imagination.

In the late ‘80s, the agency was looking for ways to create developmental opportunities, and Leslie came to the Washington Office to work for the man who became her favorite boss, Mike Dombeck. Leslie helped develop communications materials for the launch of Rise to the Future strategy and supported its national implementation. She connected with fisheries communities nationally and got a sense of the relationship between external organizations and the success of the work we do internally.

After her stint in D.C., Leslie moved to a position in the regional office in Region 1 so she would be closer to the University of Montana when her husband, whom she married in 1985, went back to school. In November 1991, the Forest Service held its first national diversity conference in Atlanta, and Leslie helped plan the event and served as its co-chair. That was just one event that led the region to focus on providing more developmental opportunities: leadership development and women and minority line positions. Leslie took advantage of that opportunity, transferring to the Bitterroot National Forest as assistant to District Ranger Cal Joyner. After Joyner moved on, Leslie, then 28, became district ranger over that 250,000 acres, half of which was a wilderness area.

When the agency shifted into ecosystem management as a philosophy, that science-based and science-informed approach appealed to Leslie. Helping start the Bitterroot Ecosystem Management Project, in cooperation with the Intermountain Research Station (now folded into the Rocky Mountain Research Station) and the University of Montana taught her the value of balancing our research with the public voice.

After her husband got his degree, the family moved back to the D.C. area so they were closer to family for their twin boys. She served a short stint as State and Private Forestry liaison to the U.S. Army Environmental Center at Aberdeen Proving Grounds before moving to the Washington Office as executive policy assistant to then-Chief Dombeck for about three years. Working for Dombeck allowed her to engage with all aspects of the job, attending meetings with the secretary, NRE and on Capitol Hill. She carried that education with her for the rest of her career.

Leslie transferred to the Deschutes National Forest as forest supervisor in 2000, where she stayed for seven years, allowing her boys to attend middle and high school in one place. There, she says, the community was highly supportive of Forest Service work across all areas, and the forest had strong relationships with community leaders. The Deschutes job, she says, was one of her best experiences, allowing her to work with the community and employees, as well as being a “really excellent” time for her family.

In 2007, she had her first senior executive service role under Chief Kimbell; two years later, she was named regional forester for the Northern Region; about two years after that, she returned as deputy chief for the National Forest System under Chief Tidwell.

There’s a theme to Leslie’s career: relationships, balance and continual learning—balance between people and science—continuing to learn from others by respecting other voices. She considers her job as forest supervisor as the epitome of working for the agency—it was a nexus of land, community and employees. Leslie notes that her career has always involved learning from others and engaging with communities: learning from tribes and respecting cultural and traditional values, learning from mentors and learning from every position from her very first exposure to the Forest Service.

She believes strongly in the value of mentorship. She loves getting youth involved in natural resources, calling herself an unabashed champion of Youth Conservation Corps. She even got her sons involved—now grown, one is a wildlife biologist and the other a geologist.

Leslie also believes in living up to our values and growing employees, something she connected with when launching the Work Environment and Performance Office was an honor. She believes that when employees and leaders know what it means to have employees be safe and respected, that can help people want to be here, to thrive and to feel included.

She advises new and future employees: Never underestimate the impact of your work to care for our lands and waters. Never underestimate the impact of sustaining productive, respectful relationships based on our values. This is Who We Are provides an incredibly strong foundation to continue to find our way in challenging times and thrive in times when things are going well. Always do your best in professional work and be part of wonderful, productive and caring teams. This agency is ripe with opportunities: You can have an impact on the agency writ large and on individuals. Find your best way to contribute. And, most of all, have fun.

Over the years of bouncing around the country, she fell in love with the Pacific Northwest, so she and her husband are retiring to Oregon. She’s looking forward to re-centering herself and not putting work first. Leslie plans to spend more time with her husband, family and friends, finally putting her core value of exploration and relationships into practice in her personal life. She’s going to dedicate her time to things she cares about in a different way than she has at work.

And, yes, that includes catching up on her to be read pile and zombie apocalypse media.