Kathy Rawls is the Director of the NC Division of Marine Fisheries, the agency responsible for the stewardship of marine and estuarine fisheries resources in North Carolina. She oversees a staff of about 300 personnel who work in six offices across the coast.
Kathy began her career with DMF in 1990 as a river herring technician, a position she held for three years before leaving to work on her family’s farm and run a private charter fishing business. She returned to the division in 1999 as a technician on a striped bass project and received promotions over the years to District Manager in the Elizabeth City District Office in 2011, to Fisheries Management Section Chief in 2014 and to Director in 2021.
Kathy attributes her life-long love of fishing and interest in marine biology to her parents. She was born and raised on a family farm in Windsor and took frequent trips to the coast with her parents. Her dad was responsible for catching the fish, and she and her mom would dissect the fish to see what they had been eating. With this background, Rawls knew from a very early age that she wanted to be a marine biologist. She earned a bachelor’s degree in marine biology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Rawls continues to enjoy spending time with her family and friends fishing, going to the beach, camping and riding 4-wheelers on the family farm.