Editor's Roundup
USDA people in the news

Eric Olsen was named chief of staff to Secretary Dan Glickman. He succeeded Greg Frazier, who held that position from March 1995 until March 2000, when he was named the U.S. Trade Representative’s special trade negotiator for agriculture and food policy.

From May 1994 until his appointment in March 2000, Olsen served at USDA first as special assistant to the secretary and subsequently as counsel to the secretary on domestic policy. In those positions he worked on such issues as appropriations, food safety, agricultural concentration, agricultural research, agricultural biotechnology, organic standards, ethanol, and marketing and regulatory issues.

From 1993-94 Olsen served as legislative counsel to U.S. Rep. David Minge (D-Minn.), where he concentrated on issues before the House Agriculture Committee and the “Great Flood of '93" in the Midwest. He worked as a staff attorney for Farmers’ Legal Action Group, based in St. Paul, Minn., after having worked as an attorney for the St. Cloud Area Legal Services in St. Cloud, Minn.

Before earning his law degree in 1989 Olsen was a research assistant to the Minnesota House of Representatives Research Department, in St. Paul. He worked as the government relations representative of The Pillsbury Company, based in Minneapolis, from 1984-85.

A native of Marshall, Minn., Olsen holds a B.A. degree in liberal arts and a J.D. degree, both from the University of Minnesota.