Recently, the First Lady, Michelle Obama, visited the Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D.C. where Chris Nelson ’02 is an employee. During her visit, Chris (standing on the left of the First Lady) was able to meet with her in recognition of his leadership efforts to streamline USDA operations that have contributed to over $800 million in cost reductions for the Department in recent years.
“As part of my work for USDA, I am responsible for leading a Department-wide review of operations to assess opportunities for increasing efficiencies while ensuring service delivery. Such work is important as budgets for Federal Agencies become tighter and is especially important for USDA and its nearly 100,000 employees responsible for delivering not only farm programs, but also nutrition assistance, food safety (meat inspections), forestry, soil and water conservation, and rural economic development.”