Hello, my name is Dr. Pauline Nol.  I’m a veterinary epidemiologist for USDA APHIS.  As a veterinarian and a researcher, I’ve worked in the wildlife health field since 1999, starting my career at the United States Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis.

I joined APHIS’s Wildlife/Livestock Disease Investigations Team in 2003.  Our job is to learn more about diseases that affect both livestock and wildlife populations, and to use this knowledge to provide guidance to our partners and other agencies that manage wildlife populations.  We’re also highly involved in using science to help find solutions for disease problems that occur when livestock and wildlife come together. Read more »

Recent news articles have reported that a healthy diet is expensive if one were to consume the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables.  As the senior economist with the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) with over 20 years of experience in the area of food economics developing food plans and market baskets, I agree.  Depending on the food choices, a healthy diet can be relatively expensive.

However, there is a compelling fact that these news reports fail to highlight — a healthy diet can be relatively inexpensive.  Now some readers of this blog may think that this is another case of economic double talk or spin, but healthy foods come in a variety of forms and a range of prices that likely fit just about anyone’s budget. Read more »

A group of Iraqi women work with vegetables during a Food Preservation Project course offered in Baghdad. Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) agricultural advisor Thaddeus White and the Baghdad Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) he was assigned to worked with local non-governmental organizations to offer the course to widows and women in need. Photo credit: Thad White.

For the past year, Thaddeus White provided education and training to the Iraqi people as an advisor for the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA)  Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in Baghdad. Read more »

In early August, USDA Rural Development Puerto Rico held a stakeholder meeting to discuss Rural Development priorities for President Obama’s 2013 budget and 2012 Farm Bill.

The main objective the meeting was to obtain valuable input to develop and improve our mission area priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.  Leaders of local businesses & NGO’s shared their ideas and discussed on how Rural Development can enhance their programs and serve better our rural communities. Read more »

For as long as Dr. Katherine Ralston could remember, she wanted to be a veterinarian. “My 6th grade teacher wrote on my report card (that I still have!), ‘When you become a vet, I’ll bring Clint (his black Labrador) to see you.’ As I got older, I discovered more and more reasons why I wanted to pursue veterinary medicine, including the challenge and choices for career focuses.”

In 2008, that dream of becoming a veterinarian became a reality when Katherine Ralston, a little girl from Vandergrift, Pa., became Dr. Katherine Ralston, graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, and full-time public health veterinarian, or PHV, at USDA’S Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Read more »

Lance Morgan, Ho-Chunk, Inc., Winnebago, Nebraska

Cross posted from the White House Rural Champions of Change website:

Lance Morgan is an enrolled member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and President, CEO, and co-founder of Ho-Chunk, Inc., the award-winning economic development corporation owned by the Winnebago Tribe. Read more »