Executive Director
Arianne Gallagher-Welcher, Esq. serves as the Executive Director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Digital Service (DS) in the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). In this role, Arianne is responsible for standing up and maintaining the USDA Digital Service, an office designed to recruit and develop an expanded team of technology, innovation, and service delivery leaders to meet the many missions needs across USDA.
Mrs. Gallagher-Welcher has been in the Federal Government for over 10 years, beginning her career as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in August of 2011. During her Fellowship, she served in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as the co-founder and later Deputy Director of the Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) program, now housed at the General Services Administration (GSA). Previous positions include serving as a Performance Manager in the office of Performance and Personnel Management in the Executive Office of the President, U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and most recently as the Director of the PMF Program at OPM. Her work has included many different initiatives and disciplines, focusing primarily on Federal workforce recruitment and development and includes innovation, open data, and human-centered design. Arianne is extremely excited to be working with the USDA OCIO to help the Department meet their many compelling missions through tech talent partnerships and human-centered problem solving.
In addition to being a PMF alum, Mrs. Gallagher-Welcher is also a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute (FEI). She also holds- a Juris Doctor (JD) from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, is a licensed attorney, and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).