USDA Chief Economist Collins to Retire

November 30, 2007 - Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner has announced the Jan 3, 2008, retirement of U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Chief Economist Keith Collins, Ph.D., and the appointment of Deputy Chief Economist Joseph Glauber, Ph.D., as Acting Chief Economist. Glauber is currently on detail to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative and serving as Special Doha Agricultural Envoy. He is expected to assume the full-time duties of chief economist in mid-December.

Collins has served as USDA Chief Economist for the past 15 years overseeing USDA's program of market forecasts and projections. Collins' 32 years of federal service has included leadership with wide-ranging impact in the economic analysis of agricultural policy, energy and bioproducts, risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis and global climate change. Collins has also served as chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation for the past seven years and chairman and vice chairman of the USDA Graduate School. His key roles in USDA Farm Bill activities began with the 1985 Farm Bill and continued with frequent testimony on behalf of USDA in congressional hearings and briefings.

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