Key Staffers Depart Zoo During Push for Reforms

The National Zoo has been losing many of its top scientists and veteran employees at a time when it is struggling to rebuild crumbling facilities and replenish its animal collection.

Those who have left this year or announced plans to leave include Rob Shumaker, an innovator behind the popular Think Tank orangutan exhibit; Christen Wemmer, the first director of the zoo's pioneering Front Royal, Va., research facility; Daryl J. Boness, former chairman of the conservation science department; and Donald K. Nichols, second in charge of the pathology department.

Though openings remain for scientists, zoo Director Lucy H. Spelman said she has "hired a number of very talented expert staff" for jobs key to the daily operations of the zoo, such as animal programs and exhibits. "I am extremely confident that the National Zoo staff is getting better," Spelman said, adding, "We have excellent new staff leading where we need leadership."

The zoo, like any institution, is always in some state of transition, but the high-profile departures come at a critical time. The zoo requires more than $250 million in capital improvements and is attempting to restore its full accreditation with the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, which in March put that seal of approval on hold after citing inadequate facilities, a depleted animal collection and management problems.

More than 35 employees took advantage of a recent buyout offer, including Shumaker, according to an internal e-mail. The employees performed a wide array of jobs, ranging from police work to maintenance and administrative duties. They represented a total of 787 years to the Smithsonian Institution, according to the e-mail. The zoo, which has roughly 300 employees, is part of the Smithsonian.

Many of those who are moving on had given much or all of their adult lives and careers to the zoo, said Margie Gibson, a former zoo public affairs official who left for another government job.

"The zoo is losing its institutional memory," Gibson said.

Some of the top managers who were at the zoo when Spelman became director in June 2000 have left since then, including Deputy Director McKinley Hudson; David Jenkins, associate director of education; Robin Vasa, chief of facilities; and Michelle Kayon, chief architect. Clinton A. Fields, director of Friends of the National Zoo, retired this fall after 16 years running the zoo's education and fundraising affiliate.

Spelman initiated one shake-up in January, after the accidental deaths of two red pandas, which ate rat poison buried in their yard. Benjamin B. Beck, associate director of animal programs, and Garrick Smith, the zoo's public safety officer, were given the choice of retiring or being dismissed, zoo sources said. Both retired.

Shumaker took his research expertise on orangutans this fall to lead a project at the Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary in Des Moines. The offer, Shumaker said, was one he "simply could not turn down. It allows me a level of scientific freedom and enjoyment I don't think I could find anywhere else."

Beck also took a job with the Iowa facility, becoming its conservation director.

Wemmer, who fell from favor three years ago when he bucked a Smithsonian proposal to shut down the Conservation Research Center in Front Royal, is retiring and moving to California to do research at the California Academy of Sciences.