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Rebecca has expertise in how domestic food and agriculture policy impacts U.S. agricultural producers. She has worked on analyses related to farm income, impacts of regulations on farmland values, drivers of conservation practice adoption, food price inflation, and forecasting changes in food assistance program participation. She also serves as Principal Investigator for one of USDA’s Policy Research Centers.

Ms. Hernandez serves as a program assistant, finance liaison, and provides research support to senior Economist. She previously worked for USDA’s Office Program and Budget Analysis. Ms. Hernandez graduated from the University with a B.A. in Economics.

Mrs. Brown-Harrod serves as an Administrative Officer responsible for providing budget execution, interagency agreements, cooperative agreements invoicing, purchasing and contract award support to the Office of the Chief Economist and division staff offices. She previously worked for 13 years with USDA, Foreign Agricultural Service serving as a program assistant. Mrs. Brown-Harrod graduated from the University of Maryland Global Campus formerly known as (University of Maryland University College) with a B.S. in Information Technology Services.

Joseph Cooper is Senior Advisor to the Chief Economist, Office of the Chief Economist, United States Department of Agriculture. Joe was previously chief of the Agricultural Policy and Models Branch for the Market and Trade Economics Division of the Economic Research Service of the USDA. He has also served in other roles on the management team in the Resource and Rural Economics Division of ERS. In addition, he has been a researcher in both divisions.

He is responsible for geospatial analytics, data development, and data visualization across a range of agricultural and food sector issues with special focus on agricultural programs, markets and natural disasters. Vince joined the OCE in August of 2019. Prior to that, he served as the Chief of the Research Support Branch and Geospatial Program Manager at the Economic Research Service. Vince has MS and BA degrees in Geography from George Mason University and Virginia Tech.

In his role he conducts economic analysis and advises the Chief Economist and senior officials regarding the economic effects of various trade policy issues, ongoing events in global commodity markets, and other areas affecting the U.S. farm economy. He performs economic modelling on policy issues of interest for U.S. agriculture and has conducted model-based assessments as needed by USDA programs such as the MFP and CFAP programs as well as arbitration of WTO trade dispute cases.

In this role he conducts reviews of regulatory risk assessments for major USDA proposed rules affecting the environment, human health or human safety. Mark’s primary focus is on sanitary and phytosanitary risks (food safety and animal and plant health). He also participates in the interagency review of regulations and guidance of other Federal Agencies that could potentially affect issues of interest to the Department of Agriculture.

Her responsibilities at ORACBA include reviewing and evaluating regulatory impact, economic, and risk analyses required for qualifying USDA proposed and final rules and regulations that affect food safety, human health, animal and plant health, human safety and the environment. Prior to joining ORACBA in late 2006, Dr. Mojduszka was a professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She also was a Harvard University fellow in the Economics Department and a visiting teaching faculty at Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy.