Page 5 - profiles in civil service program 2018 version

snails, mites, bacteria and fungi.

Five years later, I started a family and became the first officer to be permitted
to return in part-time status, a family work-life groundbreaker. I returned

full-time as a technical expert and became a certified field trainer and then a
supervisor. I headed a unit in the newly constructed T erminal One, which
became operational before construction was complete. Before our office was

fully completed, my team was selected to pilot new X-ray technology that
could differentiate organic and non-organic material, to make our inspections
more efficient. It was during my time leading the USDA staff at T erminal

One that the W orld Trade Center was destroyed on September 11. W e left
only after clearing the last flight to arrive before all aircraft were grounded.

In 2002, I transferred to a USDA office in Amityville, New Y ork, engaged in

the eradication of an invasive pest, the Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB). I
supervised a staff that worked cooperatively with the New Y ork State
Department of Agriculture and Markets. In 2008, I became an Agriculturist at

APHIS headquarters in Riverdale, Maryland, as National Coordinator for
Official Control. I engineered a new program that would allow plant pest
programs administered by state departments of agriculture to qualify for
federal regulation at ports of entry by Customs and Border Protection (CBP)

Agriculture Specialists. Cognizant of U.S. law and foreign trade agreements,
I worked closely with CBP as well as the National Plant Board, a group
representing the state departments of agriculture bureaus, which focus on

plant health.

I became the coordinator for APHIS’s Agriculture Quarantine Inspection fees,
which in 2017 totaled over $780 million. The fees fund most agricultural

inspection activities for CBP and USDA. I worked closely with CBP and
stakeholders and I also developed the agency’s new framework for a

multifunctional team to more fully address the responsibilities associated with
setting the fees. I retired after a total of 37 years of federal service, devoted to

keeping Americans safe and healthy .

I am Dr . Howard E. Waterworth, a V eteran, and I worked for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. I tested fruit tree samples for virus infections,

conducted research on plant viruses, and published results in scientific

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