Acting Administrator for the Rural Business-Cooperative Service
On September 14, 2012, Lillian Salerno became the Acting Administrator for the Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBCS) agency of the USDA's Rural Development mission area. Before coming to RBCS, Ms. Salerno served as a Special Assistant in Rural Housing Services. Lillian Salerno brings over twenty years of experience in creating initiatives for strengthening work forces and promoting jobs both domestically and internationally.
The focus of Ms. Salerno's career has been promoting and empowering populations through government initiatives and entrepreneurship. She has extensive experience collaborating with local communities, senior level officials of public and private sector organizations, senior representatives of civil society, and grassroots organizations.
Lillian Salerno has successfully negotiated Federal and state contracts for small businesses. She has also successfully applied for and received Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Federal grant money. Ms. Salerno oversaw and eventually managed a substantial piece of Federal funding by helping U.S. legislators and members of the Executive Branch formulate solutions for the protection of healthcare workers and delivery systems. From 1994 to 2000, Lillian Salerno was a senior executive and director of Texas-based Retractable Technologies, Inc., a leading manufacturer of automated retraction safety needle devices.
Trained as an attorney, Ms Salerno served as president of the International Association of Safe Injection Technology (IASIT), a Geneva-based nonprofit organization she founded in 2001. Ms. Salerno brought together the majority of injection device manufacturers from around the world to form IASIT. As IASIT president, Ms. Salerno sought common ground among divergent interests to promote safe healthcare practices, while creating market access and opportunity for new technologies. Before serving IASIT, Ms. Salerno founded Meditrade International, a Geneva-based firm designed to promote international distribution and technology transfer agreements for companies with entities in developing countries.
Lillian Salerno holds a B.A. in Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.A. in Sociology from the University of North Texas, and a J.D. from Southern Methodist University. Ms. Salerno resides in Washington D.C.
