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Jill Auburn
Jill Shore Auburn is Division Chief, Agricultural Systems and Technology, in USDA’s Research, Education and Extension Office (REEO), a new office established by the 2008 farm bill to coordinate science activities of the USDA. She is on detail to REEO from her position as national program leader for sustainable agriculture at the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), the agency of USDA
that provides funding and leadership to research, education and extension in partnership with land-grant universities and other partners. Her main responsibility at CSREES was to serve as national director of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, which supports research, education and professional development in sustainable agriculture nationwide through grants and information from four regions plus a national communications and outreach office. Before joining USDA in 1998 she was associate director of the University of California’s statewide Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, and also regional training coordinator for the Western Region of the USDA-SARE program. In 2002 she spent six months working on the tax staff of the Senate Finance Committee through the Legis Fellows program of the Brookings Institution. Her academic background is in agricultural systems analysis and ecology, with undergraduate work in animal behavior and psychology (Ph.D. from UC Davis, M.A. and B.A. from Miami University, Ohio).
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Charlotte Kirk Baer
Charlotte Kirk Baer serves as Division Chief, Animal Health, Production, and Products of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Research, Education, and Extension Office, which
was established by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 to coordinate USDA research, education, and extension activities. Previously Charlotte provided program direction and national coordination for the department’s animal science programs as National Program Leader with the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. Prior to her appointments with USDA, she spent 10 years with the National Academy of Sciences where she directed its division on agriculture and natural resources. She holds a B.S. degree in animal science from Oklahoma State University and an M.S. degree in nutritional sciences from University of Maryland. Charlotte is the invited editor of three key animal science reference volumes, the director of 50 National Academy of Science publications, and the author of six
book chapters and over 50 refereed journal articles, abstracts, and popular press publications.
Charlotte has been recognized with honors and awards including the National Academies
Distinguished Service Award, Presidential Service Award, American Association for
Advancement of Science Congressional Fellowship Selection committee appointment, and the
C.S. Shaffner Award in Poultry Science. Charlotte and her husband, David, reside in Silver
Spring, Maryland with their two young children, Joseph and Sally.
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Mary McPhail Gray
Dr. Gray serves as Division Chief, Food Safety, Nutrition and Health, in USDA’s Research, Education and Extension Office (REEO), a new office established by the 2008 farm bill to coordinate science activities of the USDA. She is on detail to REEO from her position as Deputy Administrator for the Department of Agriculture, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, Families, 4-H, and Nutrition Unit. At CSREES she provided leadership for the Research, Higher Education and Extension missions for the Agency in the areas of Nutrition, Family and Consumer Sciences and Youth Development.
Before joining USDA Dr. Gray served as the Associate Director for Cooperative Extension at Colorado State University. She served from 1994-97 at Kansas State University as the Assistant Extension Director for Family and Consumer Sciences, and Associate Dean of the College of Human Ecology. She was the State Extension Leader for 4-H and Family and Consumer Sciences at West Virginia University from 1990-94, after having worked as a State Specialist in Human Development and Family Science and an Assistant/Associate Professor of Family and Child Studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia from 1980-90.
Dr. Gray began her Extension career in 1963 as a home economics county agent in Oswego, N.Y., until she joined the Peace Corps, where from 1965-66 she was a volunteer in Jimma, Ethiopia. There she taught home economics at the local high school, and business and English at Haile Selassie University Extension.
Dr. Gray earned a B.S. in Home Economics/Textiles and Clothing Design from Iowa State University and a M.A. in Child Development/Family Life and a Ph.D. in Family Ecology and Special Education from Michigan State University.
She is the author of numerous papers and policy briefs and co-author of a text published by Prentice-Hall entitled “Knowing and Serving Diverse Families” now in its third edition. In 2008, she was a Brookings Institution Congressional Fellow in the office of Senator Edward Kennedy working on issues related to poverty.
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Catherine Parks
Catherine Parks serves as Division Chief, Plant Health, Production, and Products of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Research, Education, and Extension Office, which was established by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 to coordinate USDA. research, education, and extension activities. With an early career in agricultural science and horticulture production, Catherine has been a research ecologist in rural Oregon with the USDA. Forest Service for over 20 years, conducting investigations of complex forest health issues such as insect, disease and ecosystem-stress interactions. Recent research includes management of invasive plants in wildland systems. Catherine served as co-chair for MIREN, Mountain Invasive Plant Research Network which is a global effort to evaluate non native plant invasions into high elevation environments. Catherine was a visiting expert with the United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome Italy where she worked with various international forest health issues. As acting national vegetation apecialist for Forest Service, Forest Health and Protection, Catherine focused on national invasive plant issues. Catherine has authored or coauthored over 100 publications on scientific topics related to agriculture and forestry.
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Robbin Shoemaker
Robbin is currently the Division Chief for Agricultural Economics and Rural Communities in the Research, Education, and Extension Office, USDA. Previously Robbin was Associate Director of the Resource and Rural Economics Division at the Economic Research Service. In that position, Robbin was responsible for planning, staffing, and coordinating a diverse set of programs including the use, conservation, development, and management of natural resources; natural resource and environmental policies; the supply, demand and productivity of purchased inputs; the environmental effects of agricultural and rural economic activities; the role of research in stimulating technology to enhance productivity and protect the environment; the causes and effects of farm structure and structural change; farm finances and risk management; and the performance of the farm sector.
Prior to his appointment as Associate Division Director, Robbin was Chief of the Resources, Technology and Productivity Branch for 9 years. Robbin also served as a Branch Chief in a number of branches within the Resource and Rural Economics Division and was a Section Leader and research economist. Robbin has researched numerous natural resource policy issues, notably: The effect of farm programs on agricultural land values; incentive effects of farm programs on inputs use and externality creation; and policies to induce the adoption of externality reducing technologies.
Robbins’s current research interests include the economics of science and technology policy, with special emphasis on the role of intellectual property and the relationships between public and private research and development.
Robbin received a Ph.D. in economics from the George Washington University, a M.S. in agricultural economics from the University of Maryland, and a B.A. in economics from Temple University.
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Mark R. Walbridge
Mark Walbridge is currently on detail as the Division Chief for Renewable Energy, Natural Resources and Environment, in the Research, Education, and Extension Office (REEO), Office of the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, where he coordinates research and science-based activities in his area across the REE mission agencies. His permanent position is National Program Leader for Water Availability and Watershed Management, Office of National Programs, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD, where he directs research at more than 30 ARS laboratories throughout the US on topics related to watershed management, ecosystem restoration, and water availability and quality, with particular responsibility for watershed-based research activities, including ARS’ Benchmark Watershed Research Network. Dr. Walbridge also serves as ARS’ Headquarters Coordinator for the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) Croplands Initiative and as Science Lead for the CEAP Wetlands Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment.
Before coming to ARS, Dr. Walbridge served as Program Director for the National Science Foundation’s Ecosystem Studies Program (2004-2006), Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at West Virginia University (2001-2004), and Assistant/Associate Professor of Biology/Environmental Science & Policy at George Mason University (1989-2001). He was also the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Urban Ecosystems (1995-2004). Dr. Walbridge holds B.A. and M.S. degrees in Biology from West Virginia University, and a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of North Carolina. Dr. Walbridge’s research career focused on the ecology and biogeochemistry of freshwater wetland and forest ecosystems, with particular interest in the cycling of phosphorus and associated elements. He has published more than 25 papers in the peer-reviewed literature.
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| Last Modified: Friday, 24-Apr-2009 12:48:18 EDT |
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