Editor's Roundup
USDA people in the news

Paul Fiddick was sworn in as the assistant secretary for administration. He succeeded Wardell Townsend, who held that position from May 1993 until March 1997, when he left to establish Townsend Dantai, a government relations and trade consulting firm based in Silver Spring, Md, as well as continue course work on a Ph.D. degree in organizational psychology. [Then] Natural Resources Conservation Service Associate Chief Pearlie Reed served as acting assistant secretary for administration from February 1997 until he was named chief of NRCS in March 1998. Chief Financial Officer Sally Thompson served as acting assistant secretary for administration from January 1999 until November 1999.

Fiddick has 28 years of professional experience in the communications and technology industries. Before joining USDA, he worked as a management consultant to firms developing Internet businesses. This included serving from November 1998 until his recent appointment as interim president and vice chairman of RadioWave.com, Inc.--which is the Internet subsidiary of Motorola--in its Dallas office. In 1987 he co-founded the Dallas-based Heritage Media Corporation and was president of its 24- station radio group, which covered seven major media markets located around the country. Heritage Media was subsequently acquired by The News Corporation, Ltd. in August 1997 in a $1.5 billion merger transaction. The radio group was spun off in March 1998 to Sinclair Communications for $340 million.

From 1986-87 Fiddick served as president of the radio group of the predecessor to Heritage Media--Heritage Communications, Inc.- -in its Des Moines office. He served as president of the Radio Division of Multimedia, Inc., based in Cincinnati, from 1982-86, after having served as senior vice president of its Radio Division, based in Milwaukee, in 1981. From 1972-81 he worked as an account executive, sales marketing director, and then general manager at WEZW-FM in Milwaukee. He also taught communications courses part-time at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1978-81. He began his career at KCMO-AM/FM in Kansas City, Mo., as an account executive in 1971.

Fiddick served on the board of directors of the Radio Advertising Bureau, a national industry trade association, from 1983-99, including serving as its chair from 1993-94. He also served on the board of directors of the National Association of Broadcasters from 1994-98.

A native of Cameron, Mo., Fiddick holds a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri. 

Jim Kearney was named as administrator of the Rural Housing Service. He succeeded Jan Shadburn, who held that position from August 1997 until April 1999, when he returned to his previously held position as the Rural Development mission area’s state director in Florida, based in Gainesville. Associate Administrator Eileen Fitzgerald served as acting administrator in the interim.

From January 1999 until his recent appointment Kearney served as the associate administrator for operations and management in the Farm Service Agency. The July-August 1999 issue of the USDA News carried his complete biographical sketch, following his selection to that position. 

Kenneth M. Ackerman was selected as the assistant administrator for program accounting and regulatory analysis in the Rural Utilities Service. He succeeded Bobbie Purcell, who served in that position from November 1997 until October 1998, when she was selected as the assistant administrator for telecommunications in RUS.

Before joining USDA, from December 1996 until his selection Ackerman served as chief of the Audits Branch at the Federal Communications Commission. From 1990-96 he was chief of the Accounting Systems Branch at FCC. He worked as a systems accountant in that Branch from 1982-90. During 1982 he was an auditor in the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Transportation. He worked as an accountant at the [then] Civil Aeronautics Board from 1977-82.

A native of Baltimore, Ackerman holds a B.S. degree in accounting from Towson University in Towson, Md. He is a certified public accountant in Maryland.

Jan Poling was selected as the associate general counsel for natural resources in the Office of the General Counsel. She succeeded Jim Perry, who served in that position from October 1995 until October 1998, when he retired following over 31 years of federal service.

From 1992 until her recent selection Poling served as the deputy assistant general counsel/legislative counsel in OGC’s Natural Resources Division, concentrating on legal issues related to Forest Service programs. She worked as an attorney in the Congressional and Legislative Affairs Office at the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1988-92, after having worked as an attorney in the Office of the Solicitor at the Interior Department from 1984-88.

From 1981-84 Poling was an assistant attorney general for the state of Alabama, based in Montgomery, where she concentrated on appellate litigation and represented various state boards and agencies.

A native of Birmingham, Ala., Poling holds a B.S. degree in English education from Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama School of Law. 

Rick Cables was selected as the regional forester for the Forest Service’s Alaska Region, based in Juneau. He succeeded Phil Janik, who served in that position from May 1994 until May 1998, and who is now the Forest Service’s Chief Operating Officer. Jim Caplan, deputy regional forester for natural resources for the Alaska Region, served as acting regional forester in the interim.

From October 1995 until his selection, Cables was based in Pueblo, Colo., as the forest supervisor for the Pike and San Isabel National Forests and the Comanche National Grasslands, all in Colorado, as well as the Cimarron National Grasslands in Kansas. He was based in Laconia, N.H., as the forest supervisor for the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire and Maine from 1990-95. From 1987-89 he worked as a natural resources staff specialist at FS’s headquarters office in Washington, DC.

Cables was a district forest ranger based in Heber, Ariz., on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests from 1985-87. From 1982-85 he worked as an assistant district ranger in Questa, N.M., on the Carson National Forest, after having worked from 1980-82 as an assistant district ranger in Clifton, Ariz., on the Apache- Sitgreaves National Forests. He was a silviculturist in Heber, Ariz., on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests from 1977-80, after having worked as a forester in Grants, N.M., on the Cibola National Forest in 1977. He began his career with FS in 1976 as a forestry technician in Jacob Lake, Ariz., on the Kaibab National Forest.

A native of Pueblo, Colo., Cables holds a B.S. degree in forestry from Northern Arizona University, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. 

For most USDA employees located at headquarters and field locations and at ag posts overseas, this year’s annual Combined Federal Campaign for charitable contributions ended in December.

But for Kamala Tripathi, it’s a long-term venture.

That’s because Tripathi, a toxicologist with the Food Safety and Inspection Service, established one of the charitable organizations listed in the CFC catalogue of over 2,800 organizations that are recipients of contributions from the annual solicitation.

“To my knowledge,” he said, “I’m the only employee in USDA’s current work force who has created an organization that is listed in the CFC catalogue.”

The non-profit organization he founded, called the “Nagina Women’s Institute of Health and Education,” is based on his memories of growing up in the Suriyawan area of northern India, located between New Delhi and Calcutta. “I remember a poor area, suffering from disease and malnutrition, with a very low literacy rate, and lacking in educational and medical facilities or even basic information on family planning,” he recounted. “But I also recall that conditions were even worse for women than for men, at least partly because of practices based on culture, tradition, and illiteracy.”

“In fact,” he added, “there is a paragraph in our brochure that states 'While women in the developed countries today measure sex discrimination by comparative pay scales and seats in the corporate boardroom, women in the Third World measure discrimination by poverty levels, lack of opportunity, and mortality rates’.”

“So, even though I had left my relatives and moved away from that area over 36 years ago, I decided to try improving conditions where my roots were.”

Tripathi concluded that the most effective approach would be to create a non-profit, tax-exempt foundation. He envisioned a three-pronged thrust of activity, concentrating on eye care, health, and educational needs of all residents, but with a concentration on women and children of the Suriwayan area.

Tripathi said it took about a year for him to take care of all the administrative requirements, work with attorneys, set up a board of directors, and pay various levels of fees, including initial fees, attorneys fees, and filing fees in Virginia, home base of the foundation. “I initially paid all of those fees out of my pocket,” he recounted. “But now the foundation pays the required fees.”

As a next step he contacted the “Local Charities of America,” which is based near San Francisco. Officials with that organization helped him to get on the Combined Federal Campaign’s list of organizations which can be recipients of CFC contributions. “I had to ensure my foundation met CFC’s qualifications, such as being registered with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a non-profit, tax exempt foundation, establish a board of directors, and submit required annual forms to the IRS,” he explained. “And I’m required to get recertified by CFC each year, in order to stay on CFC’s list.”

Tripathi said that his foundation has been listed in CFC’s catalogue for the last three years. Two years ago during CFC’s annual fall activities at USDA’s headquarters in Washington, DC, he set up a booth in the Patio of USDA’s Whitten Building and handed out brochures about his foundation. “I think it resulted in about 45 to 50 contributions that year,” he said.

And where are all these tax-exempt contributions, from CFC and other sources, going? Tripathi said that, up to this point, they have been used for establishing an on-site eye care center that offers free cataract operations and free eyeglasses to all residents of that area.

“But last October,” he said, “the local Indian village government gave the foundation ten acres of land on which to build a hospital, a health center, an educational center, and a library for all citizens, but with a concentration on women and children in the area, and groundbreaking is scheduled for this summer.”

“So this will help to make women in that area full-fledged citizens with equal rights.”