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USDA White House liaison announces departure date for Paul and other personnel changes

The Agriculture Department Office of the White House Liaison late Friday announced Matt Paul, the communications director for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, wlll leave the job on Monday, March 23.

The Washington Post has previously reported that Paul will head the Iowa presidential campaign of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. There have also been reports that Clinton will formally announce her candidacy in early April.

Matt Herrick will become acting director on Paul’s departure

A civil servant who worked in Vilsack’s communications office early in the administration, Herrick recently returned to USDA as deputy communications director.

He had been director of communications for U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah.

Other USDA appointments


The announcement also included a list of other changes to the politically appointed staff at USDA:

Joyce Hunter has become the acting chief information officer upon the departure of Cheryl Cook, the announcement said. Hunter has been the deputy CIO for policy and planning.

Vilsack also has two new aides, according to the announcement:

Bianca Oden has been named deputy chief of staff for operations in the secretary’s office.

Oden joined the Obama administration in 2012 as a special adviser to the chief administrative services officer at the General Services Administration. She later became the chief of staff for the office, where she led the Freedom of Information Act and Government Accountability Office/Inspector General audit branches.

Previously she worked in both the Senate and House on foreign relations, focusing on human trafficking and Haiti.

Orden was born and raised in Upstate New York. She earned a bachelor of arts in bio-psychology and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She earned a law degree from Dickinson School of Law at Pennsylvania State University.

Omar Syed has been named the executive assistant to the secretary.

A former White House intern, Syed served on Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzer’s advance team and led her energy trade mission in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2014.

Most recently, he worked for Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser on her transition team and the District of Columbia Human Resources Department.

A Florida native and a graduate of the University of Florida, Syed started his career in nonprofit groups working to engage minorities and young Americans in state and local issues regarding education and political activism.

He has worked on various local, state and National campaigns in political and field outreach.

Internal transitions


The White House also announced a number of internal transitions within USDA:

Jennifer Yezak has become the chief of staff in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration.

She has served as acting deputy chief of staff for operations since September 29, 2014. She joined the Obama administration in June 2009, serving as director of external and intergovernmental affairs.

Yezak served as director of legislative and regulatory affairs at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture from 2002 to 2008. She worked as vice president of AgSource, Inc., from 2000 to 2002, where she was a consultant to the United Soybean Board on research and biodiesel issues.

During the Clinton administration, Yezak worked for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in legislative and public affairs; served as a confidential assistant to the undersecretaries for Marketing and Regulatory Programs and Research, Education, and Economics; and was the executive director of the National Commission on Small Farms, an advisory committee to then-Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.

Yezak also served as a legislative assistant to Democratic Sens. Lloyd Bentsen and Bob Krueger of Texas. She also held positions at the Texas Agriculture Department and the Texas House of Representatives Agriculture and Livestock Committee.

She is a native of Bremond, Texas, and earned her bachelor of science in agricultural education and a master’s of agriculture in agricultural development from Texas A&M University.

Jillian Semaan has been named a senior adviser in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.

Semaan has served as special assistant to Rural Business Services and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights since August of 2013 where much of her focus has been on outreach.

A native of Detroit, she worked for Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan before joining USDA in 2010. She also ran congressional and city council campaigns in Michigan, and was a fundraiser for the political action committee of Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.

She joined the Obama campaign in 2008 as the director of scheduling/logistics for athletes and entertainers. Following the campaign she joined the presidential Inauguration committee as a talent liaison. Semaan is a native of Detroit.

Justin Hatmaker has become chief of staff at the Rural Business and Cooperative Service.

Since joining the Obama administration in April 2009, Hatmaker has served as special assistant to both the undersecretary for food safety and, most recently, to the administrator for the Rural Business-Cooperative Service.

He also been the social media lead for BusinessUSA.

Before joining USDA, Justin worked on the Obama primary and general election campaigns in 2007 and 2008, and on campaigns for former Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Ky., former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and for Reform Ohio Now and the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party.

Hatmaker is a native of Vermilion, Ohio, and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Rebecca Shively has been named a policy adviser in the Office of the Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment.

Shively has served as an appointee since November 2011, when she joined the Farm Service Agency as a special assistant.

She moved to the Natural Resources and Environment team in June 2013, where she has focused primarily on USDA’s water and drought portfolio, and the Rural Opportunity Investment Initiative.

Before joining USDA, she worked overseas as a William J. Clinton Fellow in rural India; as a program coordinator with a Northern California food bank; as a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow in Nashville, Tenn., supporting a grassroots school food campaign, and in Washington building the capacity of the partners of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign against childhood obesity.

Shively has a joint degree in international development and political science from the University of Oregon.

Finally, the White House liaison announced that Ashley Martin, the chief of staff in Office of the Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, and Toby Osherson, the chief of staff at the Farm Service, will leave their jobs on Friday.