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Marinari, Paul

Senior Curator

Geographic Focus

Public Biography

  • In his role within the Center for Species Survival at the Smithsonian Conservation and Biology Institute (SCBI), Paul Marinari is responsible for overseeing animal operations at the Front Royal, Virginia facility and working with senior staff to implement the facility's master plan. Marinari's major responsibilities also include ensuring that the growing animal collection is linked to sustainable population development through research and improved management, especially with the Conservation Centers for Species Survival (C2S2). He also works with other zoos, universities, state, federal, and tribal governments.



    Marinari brings decades of wildlife conservation experience to SCBI. Over the last 20 years, he has worked for the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Most notably, he was the on-site Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center from 1996 until May, 2012. In this position, he played a major role in linking ex situ breeding initiatives with in situ reintroduction, including working with and bringing together many stakeholders as well as facilitating research. Marinari has also conducted collaborative research in reproductive biology, nutrition, genetics, enrichment, vaccine development, pre-reintroduction preparation and monitoring of reintroduced animals.

    Marinari earned a Bachelor of Arts in biology and anthropology from the University of Delaware in 1987 and a Master of Science in zoology and physiology from the University of Wyoming in 1992 from his studies of the endangered black-footed ferret.