REE Biographies
Dr. Cathie Woteki, Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics
Dr. Catherine Woteki is Under Secretary for United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area, as well as the Department's Chief Scientist. Her responsibilities include oversight of the four agencies that comprise REE, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Economic Research Service (ERS), and National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS.) The National Agriculture Library and National Arboretum also fall under this mission area.
Before joining USDA, Dr. Woteki served as Global Director of Scientific Affairs for Mars, Incorporated, where she managed the company's scientific policy and research on matters of health, nutrition, and food safety.
From 2002 to 2005, she was Dean of Agriculture and Professor of Human Nutrition at Iowa State University, where she was also the head of the Agriculture Experiment Station. Dr. Woteki served as the first Under Secretary for Food Safety at USDA from 1997 to 2001, where she oversaw U.S. Government food safety policy development and USDA's continuity of operations planning. Dr. Woteki also served as the Deputy Under Secretary for REE at USDA in 1996.
Prior to going to USDA, Dr. Woteki served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as Deputy Associate Director for Science from 1994 to 1996. During that time she co-authored the Clinton Administration's policy statement, "Science in the National Interest." Dr. Woteki has also held positions in the National Center for Health Statistics of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1983 to 1990), the Human Nutrition Information Service at USDA (1981 to 1983), and as Director of the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences (1990 to 1993). During her tenure as Director of the Food and Nutrition Board she had direct responsibility for twenty-seven studies and co-authored a nutrition book entitled Eat for Life which became a Book of the Month Club selection.
Dr. Woteki's research interests include nutrition, food safety policy, risk assessment, and health survey design and analysis. She is the author of over sixty refereed scientific articles and twelve books and technical reports.
In 1999, Dr. Woteki was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, where she has chaired the Food and Nutrition Board (2003 to 2005). She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Human Nutrition from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1974). Dr. Woteki received her B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from Mary Washington College (1969).
Dr. Ann Bartuska, Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics
Dr. Ann Bartuska is Deputy Under Secretary for USDA's Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area. She comes to REE from the USDA Forest Service, where she was Deputy Chief for Research & Development, a position she has held since January 2004. She recently served as Acting USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment from January - October of 2009, and was the Executive Director of the Invasive Species Initiative in the Nature Conservancy. Prior to this, she was the Director of the Forest and Rangelands staff in the Forest Service in Washington, DC. She is an ecosystem ecologist with degrees from Wilkes College (B.S.), Ohio University (M.S.) and West Virginia University (Ph.D.).
Dr. Bartuska currently co-chairs the Ecological Systems subcommittee of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources of the White House National Science and Technology Council and also is co-chair of the Sustainability Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences. She is active in the Ecological Society of America, serving as Vice-President for Public Affairs from 1996-1999 and as president from 2002-2003. She has served on the Board of the Council of Science Society Presidents and is a member of AAAS and of the Society of American Foresters.
Edward B. Knipling, Administrator, Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
Dr. Knipling is a native of Texas, but grew up primarily in the Washington, D.C. area. He earned his B.S. in 1961 in forestry from Virginia Tech University. He received his M.A. in 1963 and Ph.D. in 1966 in plant physiology from Duke University.
Dr. Knipling served in the U.S. Army 1966-68, conducting research on remote sensing of environment. He began his career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in 1968 as a research plant physiologist in Gainesville, Florida. He has also served as Area Director for ARS in Stoneville, Mississippi (1975-78), and in Fresno, California (1978-82), and Associate Deputy Administrator, National Program Staff, Beltsville, Maryland (1982-88). Dr. Knipling served as Director of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, Maryland (1988-89) and served as Deputy Administrator of the National Program Staff, Beltsville, Maryland, until October 1996. Dr. Knipling served as Acting Administrator for ARS from October 1996 to November 1997. Dr. Knipling was appointed Associate Administrator of ARS in December 1997. Dr. Knipling was appointed Acting Administrator of ARS in December 2001. Dr. Knipling was appointed Administrator of ARS in July 2004.
Dr. Cynthia Clark, Administrator, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
Dr. Cynthia Clark is Administrator of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), overseeing the agency's efforts to collect and disseminate data on every facet of U.S. agriculture.
Clark is an accomplished statistician who is highly respected both in the United States and overseas for her expertise in survey research and development. Before joining NASS, she directed statistical research and survey methodology for the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics and, prior to that, at the U.S. Census Bureau.
She has also served in numerous professional positions with the American Statistical Association (ASA), the International Statistical Institute (ISI) and the International Association of Survey Statisticians. Additionally, she is a fellow of the ASA, an elected member of ISI and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.
Under Clark's leadership, NASS conducts hundreds of surveys and issues nearly 500 national reports each year on agricultural production, economics, demographics, and environmental statistics. NASS also conducts the Census of Agriculture every five years, providing the only source of uniform, comprehensive agricultural data for every county in the nation.
Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, Director, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy was appointed to serve as director of the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) on May 7, 2012. As part of USDA’s Research, Education, and Extension mission, he oversees NIFA awards funds for a wide range of extramural research, education, and extension projects that address the needs of farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers.
Prior to joining NIFA, Dr. Ramaswamy served as dean of Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences and director of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station. He provided overall leadership for the college’s academic programs at the Corvallis campus and OSU programs at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, for-credit extended education, informal education through the Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources Extension Program, and research at OSU’s main campus and 11 branch experiment stations throughout the state.
Previously, Dr. Ramaswamy was associate dean of the Purdue University College of Agriculture and directed the university's agricultural research programs from 2006 to 2009. Prior to joining the Purdue faculty, Dr. Ramaswamy was head of Kansas State University’s Department of Entomology from 1997 to 2006, where he held the title of Distinguished Professor and was named the Presidential Outstanding Department Head in 2002. He also served on the faculty of Mississippi State University and as a research associate at Michigan State University. As an insect physiologist, he worked on the integrative reproductive biology of insects.
Dr. Ramaswamy has received research grants from many federal agencies, including USDA, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, and the United States Agency for International Development, as well as from state agencies, commodity groups, and industry. He has published nearly 150 journal articles, book chapters, and a book. He has received a number of awards and honors as a scientist and department head, including being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Fellow of the Entomological Society of America; and Distinguished Graduate Alumnus of Cook College, Rutgers University.
He received a Bachelor of Science in agriculture and a Master of Science in entomology from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India, and his doctorate in entomology from Rutgers University. He is also a graduate of the University of Nebraska’s New Academic Chair’s Program and Harvard University’s Management Development Program.
Mary Bohman, Administrator, Economic Research Service (ERS)
Mary Bohman is Administrator of the Economic Research Service. She had recently served as Acting Administrator and had been Director of the Agency's Resource and Rural Economics Division. Mary joined ERS in 1997 and has served as Deputy Director for Research in ERS's Market and Trade Economics Division (MTED) and as Chief of MTED's Europe, Africa, and Middle East Branch. Other public-sector positions held include details to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and to USDA's Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services. From 1990 to 1997 she was on the Agricultural Sciences faculty at the University of British Columbia.
Mary received her Ph.D. from the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of California, Davis and her B.S. from the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.
Mary is a member of the Agriculture & Applied Economics Association, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Wye Group on Statistics on Rural Development and Agricultural Household Income, and the International Association of Agricultural Economists.