Congratulating Dr. Mary Freeman on her Lifetime Achievement Award

"To know Dr. Mary Freeman is to know someone who seeks connections. Whether aquatic ecosystems and flow regimes, natural resource managers with critical data, graduate students with appropriate methodologies, the general public with underappreciated aquatic fauna or really, all of the above, all at once, Dr. Freeman has dedicated her life to the study and conservation of southeastern aquatic animals, with particular emphasis on freshwater fishes. For these reasons, we are honored to award her the Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southeastern Fishes Council.

 

"Dr. Freeman’s research accomplishments are vast. After earning her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D., all from the University of Georgia, she soon joined the Department of the Interior as a Research Ecologist. During three decades, during which her position moved from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the National Biological Survey to the U.S. Geological Survey, she produced 110 peer-reviewed publications and more than $2.8 million in competitive grant funding. Her expertise includes many different facets important to the conservation of freshwater biota, including basic biodiversity science, effects of river and water resource management on stream communities, instream flow influences on aquatic biota dynamics, and consequences of community change on stream ecosystem function. Most importantly, her work fills a critical knowledge gap between theory and practice. As one nominator wrote, Dr. Freeman “deftly combines applied research valued by conservation practitioners with questions rooted in ecological theory that excite her scientific peers.”

 

"Throughout her career in public service with the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr. Freeman creates time for mentoring and supporting graduate students. She has advised or co-advised 18 master’s and eight PhD students, and served on the committees of dozens of other students. One of her nomination letters from a colleague mentioned that when Dr. Freeman was asked to join her student’s committee, she received as a reply that, “yes, she’d squeeze them in with the other 17 she was on.” This wasn’t an exaggeration or a sarcastic response; it was simply Mary being as generous with her time as ever.

 

"The many students, other mentees, and peers who have worked with Dr. Freeman have countless stories and moving descriptions of her warm, compassionate mentoring style. As a nominator wrote, “She truly cares about the people she works with, and she consistently exhibits grace and humility in every situation she encounters. Without question, it is these qualities that amplify her ability to also bring out the absolute best in every person she works with.” And it is important to point out that in bringing out the absolute best, she has, as other nominators described it, sometimes served as a “butt-kicker,” with the result of generations of graduate students who are now playing leading roles in academic institutions, agency research and management programs, and nonprofit organizations.

 

"Dr. Freeman has already been well-recognized for her work, including the Environmental Stewardship Award from the Society for Freshwater Science, 2021, and the Regional Director’s Conservation Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, presented to the Etowah Habitat Conservation Plan Development Team in 2007. But that doesn’t seem like quite enough for someone so influential in this field, and we are so very happy to present her with the Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of the Southeastern Fishes Council. Dr. Freeman is truly someone who has brought her innumerable strengths in service of the Southeastern Fishes Council’s mission."