USDANEWS VOLUME 56 NO. 5 - MAY 1997

Editor's Roundup
USDA people in the news

Jeff Vonk was selected as the regional conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service's Northern Plains Region, based in Lincoln, Neb. This is a newly-created position as part of an NRCS reorganization in 1995.

From September 1994 until his selection, Vonk was deputy chief for programs at NRCS's headquarters office in Washington, DC. From 1990-94 he served as the agency's state conservationist in Iowa, based in Des Moines. He worked as a staff leader in NRCS's Office of Legislative Affairs from 1988-1990. From 1986-88 he served as the director for the agency's operations in the Caribbean Area, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was a technical advisor to a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded soil conservation project based in Lima, Peru, from 1985-86.

Vonk began his career with NRCS in 1979 as a soil conservationist in New York, and subsequently served as a district conservationist and then as a resource conservation and development coordinator for the agency in that state. From 1977-79 he served in the Peace Corps in Valdivia, Chile. He was a program specialist for the Smithsonian-Peace Corps Environmental Program with the Smithsonian Institution from 1975-77.

A native of Colonie, N.Y., Vonk holds a B.S. degree in forest biology from the State University of New York and an M.S. degree in wildlife management from the University of Maine. ¤

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