Editor's Roundup
USDA people in the news

    Cliff Oliver was selected as the director of USDA’s Office of Crisis Planning and Management. This is a newly created position as part of a December 2000 reorganization that brought together, into that new staff office within Departmental Administration, the existing functions of personnel security, national security, and emergency management at USDA.

    Before joining USDA, from August 1998 until he was selected for this position, effective in March 2001, Oliver served as chief of the Assessment Branch with the Federal Emergency Management Agency at its headquarters office in Washington, DC. In that position he managed FEMA’s post-disaster forensic engineering program, known as the Building Performance Assessment Team Program, which produced reports focusing on lessons learned about the survivability of buildings following major disasters. Those reports included such disasters as Hurricanes Andrew (which occurred in 1992), Iniki (1993), Opal (1995), Fran (1996), and Georges (1998), Tropical Storm Alberto (1994), the May 1999 Midwest Tornado outbreak, and the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

    Oliver worked as a senior engineer at FEMA from 1991-98, focusing on loss reduction issues involved in the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program. From 1987-91 he was a senior engineer with the county government of Prince George’s County, Md., where he was responsible for overseeing various aspects of the County’s flood control and flood emergency management programs.

    Oliver worked as a field engineer for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (“Metro”) from 1986-87, where he helped oversee the construction of the Washington, DC metropolitan area’s subway system. From 1984-86 he worked in various civil engineering positions in the private sector in the Washington metropolitan area.

    A native of Bedford, N.Y., Oliver holds a B.S. degree in geology and an M.S. degree in engineering management, both from the University of Maryland.