By Christopher Magan

St. Paul Pioneer Press

The next leader of the Minnesota Zoo will likely be a state native who was once a zookeeper at the Apple Valley facility.

John Fawley was picked by an executive search committee to be the next director, Peter Maritz, chair of the zoo’s board of directors, wrote in a Monday email to members. Fawley is now president of the conservation group Bay.org, which is working to protect the San Francisco Bay.

“We believe we have found a great candidate to help us fulfill our mission to connect people, animals and the natural world to save wildlife,” Maritz said in his email.

Fawley grew up in Minnesota, and he and his wife, Anita, have a home here, Maritz said. Early in his career, from 1988 to 1992, Fawley worked as a zookeeper at the Minnesota Zoo.

Fawley will be introduced to the entire board of directors at its Jan. 27 meeting. It’s the board’s job to pick the zoo’s next leader.

When he’s officially selected, Fawley will replace Lee Ehmke, who left in August to lead the Houston Zoo. Ehmke led the Minnesota Zoo for 15 years, and during that time, he oversaw large-scale additions and renovations at the state-owned facility.

The latest, an exhibit of Hawaiian monk seals, opened last year in the zoo’s Discovery Bay. Work to attract more visitors and annual members through new exhibits and activities is expected to continue under the zoo’s next leader.

New attractions are believed to be important to the zoo’s long-term fiscal viability. Last year, state lawmakers agreed to $1.35 million in emergency funding for the zoo to help close a $1.5 million funding shortfall.