At the mass of the Feast of our Lady of Good Counsel on April 26, Good Counsel announced the recipient of the 2023 Brother Bob Arrowsmith ’63 Distinguished Alumnus Award, John Berry ’77.

Mr. Berry has served in many positions in the U.S. government, including posts in the U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. He also worked as director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Zoological Park, which he considers to be his dream job.

The following questions were asked by students to Mr. Berry in an interview following the mass of the Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

Q: What specifically have you done for wildlife conservation? 

A: I knew that the first place that global warming would become evident was Antarctica, so I rebuilt the science program in Australia, and almost all of the evidence proving the science on [global warming] has come from those rebuild facilities in Antarctica.

The other thing is, when I was ambassador to Australia, conservation was not a US priority. But I knew a guy who was working with wildlife in Western Australia, and he had an area that was essentially the Garden of Eden, which was virtually untouched by human influence. It was under threat because of three nearby developments, but I worked with the defense department, and we had all those areas designated as defense properties. The square footage of the properties was over a million miles of conservation space.

So wherever you are, you can make your mark and move the ball forward, so that’s why I say don’t be afraid of the zig-zag of life, as long as you keep your priority areas in the back of your mind.

Q: Is there anything you still feel like you need/want to do?

A: Having run big things now, it’s both invigorating and distressful. The big stuff ages you, and now I think what frustrates me is the one-on-one. And I’ve taken the time to get to know some people in New York who are homeless, and last year I gave out $1.6 million in scholarship, but nothing has been more rewarding for me more recently than those one-on-one interactions on the streets of New York. Now that I’m getting older, I think the street level is where I’ll find things more rewarding.

Q: Do you think it is more important to work on the Congress level, or is it more impactful to work in the nonprofit sector where there are not the same political restraints?

A: They both do wonderful things. There is so much good that happens in both places. It’s harder when you’re in Congress, because the fastest a bill happens is one year. The normal path is three to four years, and it’s hard to get a majority to say ‘Okay, this is what we want to do.’ But when you do it, it has an amazing impact in such a far reaching way. Nonprofit is more incremental, and all to the good, but the bigger bang, even though it’s longer to get to, is the government.

Q: What would you say your biggest challenge was throughout your whole political career?

A: The first thing is getting people to trust you. If you walk into a new job situation, and especially if it’s a demoralized situation, it’s like walking into the dentist without anesthesia. My advice to you is just be authentic. You can’t sugarcoat what’s real. Empowering professionals to do the job ended up working for me, and within a year they had the confidence that they had lost over time.

Q: As a leader, how do you get the most productivity out of yourself and your team?

A: I think the key thing that I’ve learned is that human beings naturally can remember three things well, five things max, and any over that is chaos. Keeping it simple kept the zoo alive. If you walk in and try to fix every problem at once, it’s overwhelming and nothing will be fixed.

People know you’re genuine and authentic if you stay focused on those three, you empower them on those three, you put resources in those three, you cheerlead for them when they succeed on those three, then you celebrate when it’s finally done, then you get you’re buy-in when you finally add a third again.