With about 28 years of experience in planning and implementing international research collaboration around the world, I have been the Acting Director of the Office of International Research Programs, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), at the U.S. Department of Agriculture since 2009. I oversee the program management and implementation staff and assist the Agency’s leaders in planning the overall research, mission, goals, and policies of ARS’s international research programs. I am the primary point of contact for the U.S. Government’s major food security initiative, Feed the Future, including overseeing research under the Norman Borlaug Commemorative Research Initiative. I also led the Research, Education and Economics Mission Area of USDA to coordinate input into the new Global Food Security Strategy under the new Global Food Security Act of 2016. I am the principal point of contact for international activities with Sub Saharan Africa and have served as the primary USDA contact for the Government's international science and technology programs. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Democratic Republic of Congo (1983 to 1985) and a State Department Intern at the U.S. Embassy in Jordan the summer of 1987. I have a Masters in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) in addition to my undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona.
