John Berry (administrator) - Career

Career

Berry served in management for the Montgomery County government from 1982 to 1984 and as staff director of the Maryland Senate Finance Committee from 1984 to 1985. From 1985 to 1994, he was legislative director for U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer, and associate staffer on the House Appropriations Committee. Berry assisted Hoyer on employment issues of the federal government, and played a leading role in negotiations that led to the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990, which established the locality pay system. From 1994 to 1995, Berry served as Deputy Assistant Secretary and acting Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement in the U.S. Treasury Department. From 1995 to 1997, Berry worked as director of government relations and as senior policy advisor at the Smithsonian Institution, and was subsequently appointed Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget at the U.S. Department of the Interior during the Clinton administration, serving from 1997 to 2001.

At the Interior Department, Berry improved credit union and continuing education options, oversaw the expansion of department programs to improve employees' work-life balance, and held town hall meetings with Interior employees and used their suggestions to upgrade a cafeteria and health center. These changes were partly funded through partnerships with federal employees, unions and other agencies to reduce costs for the department. Berry worked to create a complaint procedure for employees who experience discrimination because of their sexual orientation, to expand relocation benefits and counseling services to domestic partners of employees, to establish a liaison to gay and lesbian workers, and to eliminate discriminatory provisions of the National Park Service's law enforcement standards. He helped establish an office supply store for Interior employees, which he staffed with disabled workers. Berry oversaw one of the largest budgetary increases in the department's history.

In 2000, Berry became director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, where he worked with Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney to reconcile twenty years of financial records, improve management, and conserve wildlife habitat through public-private partnerships. Berry was appointed from October 1, 2005, to serve as director of the National Zoo, which had been found to have shortcomings in record keeping and maintenance. Berry created a strategic planning and modernization process for the zoo. This included a twenty-year capital plan, securing $35 million in funding to provide for fire protection, and beginning renovations to animal houses.