Tanya L. Jackson

My duties included:

• Chairing the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) for the recruitment of Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) for the Economic Growth and Agricultural Development (EGAD) Office at the USAID/Haiti Mission.
• Procuring 58 new FSOs through participation in a TEC in anticipation of a surge of early FSO retirements.
• Effectively collaborating across offices to strategize long-term talent acquisition plans aligned with organizational objectives.
• Pre-screening resumes before sending them to hiring managers for consideration and conducting reference checks on potential hires, ensuring the accuracy of information provided during interviews.
• Analyzing statistical data and generating graphs to produce a PowerPoint gap analysis report of overseas Missions' current budget and the projected need for additional Agricultural Development Officer (ADO) positions in the next fiscal year. The outcome of this report ensured that an additional funding request for ADO positions would be in the next Congressional Budget Justification.

The USAID Haiti Mission (the Mission) and most of the United States Embassy staff evacuated on July 30, 2023; the American staff worked remotely from Washington, D.C. to continue to support the Mission. Before the evacuation and for three months after the evacuation, my primary duties and responsibilities included:

• Demonstrating strong organizational and time management skills while managing multiple projects; working effectively in fast-paced, insecure environments while continuously providing support and guidance to field, office, and virtual teams.
• Creating better linkages between the Economic Growth and Agricultural Development (EGAD) sides of the portfolio for the purpose of improving collaboration and communication between private sector entrepreneurs, agricultural producers, and value chain actors.
• Managing a $33M annual budget; in 2023, the EGAD office merged with the Office of Infrastructure, Energy, and Engineering (OIEE) and the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) team. As a result of the increased insecurity in Port-au-Prince, resources were redirected to infrastructure, energy, engineering, and WASH projects in secure, rural areas that would support the established economic growth and agricultural development programs in these same areas.
• Actively supervising, mentoring, and empowering a diverse staff composed of 11 Foreign Service Nationals (FSN), 1 United States Personal Service Contractor (USPSC), and 1 United States Direct Hire (USDH) personnel through promoting professional self-empowerment to achieve personal & agency goals.
• Providing technical leadership in coordination with the Government of Haiti Ministries, USG agencies, international partners, and other stakeholders on managing and mitigating animal health risk through monitoring Dominican and Haitian zoonotic issues that may impact human health, food security, and the EGAD office programming.

Due to a change in the Embassy's security posture, some incoming personnel chose to be reassigned; therefore, I was temporarily promoted to the Acting Office Chief (AOC) until another FSO Office Chief could be approved. During the five-and-a-half-month period, I assumed the duties of the Office Chief while also continuing my responsibilities as Deputy Office Chief. My AOC duties included:

• Managing office operations and supervising nine Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs), local staff members, and one United States Direct Hire (USDH) staff member, who were organized into two teams -Economic Growth & Agricultural Development (EGAD).
• Employing strong analytical and problem-solving skills to develop effective solutions for challenging security situations that were developing in Port-au-Prince. These kinetic and violent events were negatively impacting daily office operations and potentially posing a threat to field operations.
• Ensuring the successful Implementation of economic growth, agriculture, and food security projects, including managing both financial and human resources, and continuously monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on the extent to which projects can be successfully implemented in the current insecure environment.

USAID stopped the implementation of development activities in Afghanistan after American troops were withdrawn from the country in 2021; U.S. Embassy staff worked remotely from Washington, D.C. after the withdrawal. During my two-year assignment, my specific duties included:

• Performing Activity Manager and Agreement Officer Representative (AOR)/ Contracting Officer Representative (COR) duties for three capacity building projects, totaling $29 million, designed to build the agricultural technical capacity of the former Government of Afghanistan (GoA).
• Ensuring delivery of programmatic and technical expertise to the Office of Agriculture's (OAG) Office Director, USAID/Afghanistan Mission management, the former GoA, and donor colleagues. Building consensus and partnerships among these stakeholders to support the growth of the agricultural sector and enable economic prosperity in Afghanistan.
• Serving as the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) Chair for the hiring of Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs).
• Guiding and motivating staff to perform at their best, ensuring that FSN staff were trained and mentored to take on more responsibilities.

After the U.S. Embassy Staff evacuated from Afghanistan, I supported USAID and the Department of State's (DoS) Afghan Relocation Task Force (ARTF). My duties and responsibilities included:

• Reviewing refugee/asylum documentation and processing Afghan refugee applications for P1/P2 visas.
• Providing referrals for USAID's implementing partners' local staff.
• Establishing and maintaining liaisons with the DoS's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private sector stakeholders involved in the DoS's "Parole Program" resettlement process.

My duties included:

• Inspecting and conducting food safety and food quality audits of food processors that produce USAID's specialized nutritious food.
• Designing a “Food Safety Best Practices Toolkit” to promote capacity building initiatives of emergency food beneficiaries.
• Reviewing and providing technical evaluation on unsolicited humanitarian assistance grant proposals.
• Contributing to the revision of Food for Peace's Nutrition Strategy for the implementation of nutrition interventions, including fortification and supplementation, gap analyses, and technical assistance for nutrition-specific, nutrition-sensitive, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions.

My duties for the Office of Civil Rights and Diversity (OCRD) included:

• Conducting a needs assessment for the Foreign Service Language Training Program.
• Presenting the results of the needs assessment to the Human Capital Talent Management (HCTM) Office and OCRD staff, and providing recommendations and options for improving the language training program based on the findings.
• Improving workplace culture, fostering open communication, and enabling a positive work environment through team-building initiatives.
• Managing the activities of the “Healthy Workplace Advisory Board” as the Executive Secretariat.

My duties for the Office of Agriculture (OAG) included:

• Revising the Request For Proposal (RFP) for the $28 million Regional Agricultural Development Program (RADP-East) activity.
• Coordinating the completion of pre-obligation documents between the USAID's Afghanistan Mission's (the Mission's) program and procurement offices and USAID Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
• Serving as the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) Chair for the procurement of the RADP-East activity.
• Identifying areas of development cooperation between USAID's OAG in Afghanistan and the Department of Defense (DOD); providing the OAG program overview to military officials involved in civilian-military cooperation for rural development activities.

Additional responsibilities included nutrition, food safety, and food security project design and project management:

• Providing expert advice for the Mission's complementary food safety project. This project identified the prevalence of fungal-based toxins found in Afghan imported and domestic wheat flour.
• Co-designing a Results Framework for the proposed “2016 Bilateral Food Safety Activity”.
• Advancing the Mission's food fortification program bilaterally and regionally in the Central Asian Republics, directly contributing to the food security component of USAID's “Almaty Consensus” (also known as the DoS' Silk Road Initiative).
• Leading the Mission's food fortification design team for a new project to reduce chronic malnutrition in Afghanistan.
• Serving a coordinating role on regional nutrition and food security activities.

My primary duties and responsibilities included:

• Project management for a $1.2 million poultry production scale-up project in the Southern Delta Region of Bangladesh, designed to improve food security, biosecurity, and nutrition.
• Providing technical assistance for the Office of Economic Growth (OEG) and serving as a technical liaison on the Avian Influenza Pandemic Team.
• Strengthening the USAID Bangladesh Mission's (the Mission's) commitment to gender equity by leading the procurement of the Women's Empowerment Activity (WEA), which was designed to increase women's empowerment in all the Mission's Feed the Future (FtF) activities.
• Building consensus among stakeholders and advancing the Mission's Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) Food Safety Program implemented by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) with the technical assistance of other United States Government (USG) Agencies.
• Coordinating quarterly Food Safety Stakeholders' Meetings.

My primary duties and responsibilities while in training in preparation for my first overseas assignment:

• Long-term language training: French, Bangla.
• Continuous security training: Foreign Affairs Counter Threat (FACT), Cybersecurity, Diplomatic Security.
• Coursework for COR/AOR and Project Management certification.
• Short-term details through USAID's technical offices and the State Department's Financial (F) bureau.
• Volunteering as a clerical logger for the State Department's Japan Task Force after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

As a Regulatory Consultant and Technical Reviewer for New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) Notifications submitted by industry to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), I performed the following:

• Analyzing Dietary Supplement Health Education Act (DSHEA) compliance of my client's proposed dietary supplement.
• Providing exceptional client service by addressing questions or concerns promptly and professionally, maintaining strong working relationships throughout engagements.
• Interpreting regulatory rules or rule changes and communicating with others through corporate policies and procedures.
• Advising clients on complex regulatory matters, ensuring understanding of requirements and implications.
• Monitoring changes in legislation affecting clients' businesses, providing timely updates and strategic advice as needed.
• Drafting executive summaries and option papers for dietary supplement manufacturers and legal representatives, justifying their decision to file or not file a pre-market notification with the FDA.

Position title: Regulatory Scientist and Lead Reviewer.

As a Lead Reviewer for Pre-Market Notifications, my primary duties and responsibilities included:

• Serving as a scientific and regulatory analyst in the Division of Dietary Supplements Program.
• Providing technical support on regulatory and policy issues during the drafting of a guidance document for industry for submitting a history of use and safety data for “New Dietary Ingredient” (NDI) Pre-Market Notifications.
• Researching Investigational New Drug (INDs) and New Drug Applications (NDAs) status for New Dietary Ingredients submitted by industry in their “New Dietary Ingredients Pre-Market Notifications”.
• Identifying and evaluating drug claims and function/structure claims in “New Dietary Ingredients Pre-Market Notifications”.
• Reviewing “New Dietary Pre-Market Notifications” from industry and preparing an FDA response letter based on the reviews submitted by the botanical, chemical, pharmacological, toxicological, and clinical reviewers.
• Writing summary papers on the regulatory history of controversial new dietary ingredients submitted in “New Dietary Ingredients Pre-Market Notifications”.
• Drafting botanical/phytochemical reviews for botanically based supplements.