Federal Independent Agencies
News releases, reports, statements and associated documents from federal independent agencies.
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USAID Administrator Green's Meeting With Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Emergency Relief Coordinator
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 -- The U.S. Agency for International Development issued the following news release:
On January 13, 2020, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Mark Green met with the United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, who directs the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The two officials discussed some of the world's most-pressing man-made crises, including Yemen, Venezuela, South Sudan, and Syria. Administrator Green expressed USAID's continued commitment
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 -- The U.S. Agency for International Development issued the following news release:
On January 13, 2020, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Mark Green met with the United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, who directs the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The two officials discussed some of the world's most-pressing man-made crises, including Yemen, Venezuela, South Sudan, and Syria. Administrator Green expressed USAID's continued commitmentto provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations around the world.
During the meeting, Mr. Lowcock provided an overview of the UN's recently launched 2020 Global Humanitarian Overview, which projects that 168 million people will need humanitarian aid in 2020.
The two officials also noted the operational constraints and access challenges that continue to limit the ability of aid groups to reach vulnerable populations, especially those affected by conflict.
New Publication Features the Breadth of Atlanta Fed Research
ATLANTA, Georgia, Jan. 18 -- The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta issued the following news release:
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta announced that the premiere issue of its new online policy and research publication has been released. "Policy Hub will focus on the expertise of our economists and other researchers and the breadth of the work that they do here at the Atlanta Fed," said Paula Tkac, Atlanta Fed senior vice president and associate research directory. "The publication is designed to be of interest to academic researchers, policy experts, private-sector businesses, financial institutions,
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ATLANTA, Georgia, Jan. 18 -- The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta issued the following news release:
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta announced that the premiere issue of its new online policy and research publication has been released. "Policy Hub will focus on the expertise of our economists and other researchers and the breadth of the work that they do here at the Atlanta Fed," said Paula Tkac, Atlanta Fed senior vice president and associate research directory. "The publication is designed to be of interest to academic researchers, policy experts, private-sector businesses, financial institutions,research academics, regulatory policymakers--anyone who's interested in how certain matters affect their business or the larger economy," she said.
This first issue will feature a historical view of central bank actions. Economist Will Roberds looks to the Bank of Amsterdam in the 17th century to discuss a recent proposal suggesting that the Federal Open Market Committee set up a standing repo facility.
Subsequent issues will look at topics including forecasting, fiscal policy, financial stability, innovation, regulation, human capital, labor markets, health and education, government-sponsored entity reform, mortgage markets, and affordable housing.
"Our economists have expertise in so many areas that we use in the pursuit of our broad public mission, and we'd like to share that expertise," added Tkac.
Look for Policy Hub in the research pages of the Atlanta Fed website.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta serves the Sixth Federal Reserve District, which encompasses Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and sections of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. As part of the nation's central banking system, the Atlanta Fed participates in setting national monetary policy, supervises numerous commercial banks, and provides a variety of financial services to depository institutions and the U.S. government.
Gulf Research Program Awards $7.25 Million to Eight Projects Working to Advance Safety Culture in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 -- The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine issued the following news release:
The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced $7.25 million in grant awards for eight projects focused on strengthening safety culture in the offshore oil and gas industry.
Oil and gas production in deepwater are inherently hazardous activities that can fail in complex, catastrophic ways, as tragically shown by the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico and the 87-day oil spill that ensued 10 years ago. While
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 -- The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine issued the following news release:
The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced $7.25 million in grant awards for eight projects focused on strengthening safety culture in the offshore oil and gas industry.
Oil and gas production in deepwater are inherently hazardous activities that can fail in complex, catastrophic ways, as tragically shown by the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico and the 87-day oil spill that ensued 10 years ago. Whilemany factors led to this disaster, several reports issued in the aftermath emphasized the need for an improved safety culture within the offshore oil and gas industry. A robust safety culture has many dimensions, including leadership commitment to safety values and actions, a safe environment for raising concerns or reporting incidents and "near misses," and organizational policies and practices that encourage employees to make safe decisions.
The GRP's Safer Offshore Energy Systems (SOES) Grants 4 supports projects that produce datasets, strategies, and tools for measurement that will promote a culture of safety in the oil and gas industry. As the industry will continue to be a vital part of the Gulf Coast economy, this work is urgently needed to ensure protection of people and the environment.
"A culture of safety has many characteristics," said Kelly Oskvig, senior program officer for the Gulf Research Program's SOES initiatives. "Through this grants competition, we hope to provide the tools to help strengthen some of those characteristics as well as answer a few critical questions: What best practices can oil and gas adapt from other high-risk industries? How can an organization measure improvement of its safety culture? How can data be used to better understand the dangers?"
The eight SOES projects are:
Bringing High-Reliability Safety Culture Decisions into Focus: Training with Interactive Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping
Award Amount: $684,054
Project Director: Antonie Jetter (Portland State University)
Project Team Affiliation: Portland State University in cooperation with Louisiana State University
Overview: Several studies have called for offshore oil and gas workers to adopt best practices from other high-risk industries, including the nuclear power plant and air traffic control industries. However, frontline managers remain unaware of these external best practices, or have trouble customizing them for offshore oil and gas operations. Inspired by so-called "management flight simulators," this project creates an interactive online platform that allows users to model responses to everyday safety threats. The platform, FOCOS (Fuzzy Operational Cognition of Safety Culture), lets users add, intensify, or stop interventions, and see how their decisions impact the overall system and safety culture. To inform future research and pilot programs, FOCOS will also collect data on uncertain and controversial safety practices and differences in training needs among different users (by role, professional background, and years of experience).
Employee Well-Being and Mindfulness as Predictors of Process and Personal Safety
Award Amount: $828,113
Project Director: Christiane Spitzmueller (University of Houston)
Project Team Affiliation: University of Houston in cooperation with Robert Gordon University
Overview: Mindfulness exercises are shown to improve employee mental and physical health, but there has been limited work to leverage mindfulness exercises for offshore safety. This academia-industry partnership project will examine how mindfulness affects safety culture, focusing on perceptions of supervisory safety culture, worker situational awareness, employee burnout and well-being, and employee participation in and compliance with safety behaviors. The team will develop 90 minute "train-the-trainer" programs, along with survey tools to measure program effectiveness so supervisors can guide their employees through mindfulness techniques they can use before their shifts and before high-risk situations.
Safety Reporting Action Program for Offshore Oil and Gas Industry in the Gulf of Mexico Award Amount: $755,851
Project Director: Daniel Adjekum (University of North Dakota)
Project Team Affiliation: University of North Dakota in cooperation with United States Coast Guard
Overview: In the offshore environment, minor workplace accidents tend to go unreported because individuals fear blame. However, several minor unreported safety risks can be precursors for catastrophic accidents, as was the case with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. Offshore oil and gas safety regulators have recognized the need for a more proactive reporting system - and a culture shift - that encourages workers to report mistakes and near misses, identify the potential for error, and even stop work when needed. This project will assess the viability of an offshore safety action reporting system modelled after the aviation safety action program (ASAP) by using focus groups, interviews, and a quantitative survey of about 1,500 personnel. It will also assess gaps between the perceived level of safety reporting culture and the actual level of safety reporting in the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas industry.
Measuring and Improving Blended Project-Safety Culture in Operations of Offshore Oil and Gas Facilities
Award Amount: $733,631
Project Director: Ivan Damnjanovic (Texas A&M University)
Project Team Affiliation: Texas A&M University in cooperation with Proactima
Overview: Measuring organizational commitment to safety is particularly challenging in the offshore oil and gas industry, as 80 percent of personnel are third-party contractors. The industry's reliance on external contractors means team members may not share the same training, experiences, and even language. Rather than measuring safety culture in broad terms, this project aims to develop quantifiable measurements of safety culture improvements that are specific to three categories: activity, team (for example, contractors versus onshore-based specialists), and the type of offshore installation. It will also provide a tool for measuring safety culture while work orders are being planned and executed; and a tool to help offshore plant managers specify project requirements (for example, communication requirements) that could improve safety culture.
Aggregating Essential Exposure Data to Enable Meaningful Analysis of Safety Incident Rates Around the World
Award Amount: $739,992
Project Director: Xiaozhi Wang (American Bureau of Shipping)
Project Team Affiliation: American Bureau of Shipping in cooperation with Safetec
Overview: Historically, government agencies, industry groups, and companies from around the world have collected offshore incident data to help understand and improve safety conditions. However, these datasets were collected at different times and used different terminology and data languages. This project aims to provide recommendations for viable data science technologies that could be employed to aggregate these disparate datasets, and establish common goals and metrics, to improve understanding of safety risks and trends in the Gulf of Mexico. The desired final product -- a comprehensive global offshore incident dataset -- will help set a foundation for predictive modeling initiatives. The data could inform government and industry decision-making processes such as permitting emerging technologies, setting new regulations or policies to mitigate risk, and choosing exploration projects.
Development of an Evidence-Based, Multilevel Safety Culture Assessment Battery for the Offshore Industry
Award Amount: $1,130,591
Project Director: Scott Tannenbaum (The Group for Organizational Effectiveness)
Project Team Affiliation: The Group for Organizational Effectiveness in cooperation with the University of Connecticut, Rice University, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, and Offshore Operators Committee
Overview: Safe behavior in the oil and gas industry is influenced by individual safety readiness; the team's safety assumptions, values, and beliefs; team leader and team member behaviors; and the organization's safety practices and policies. This project will develop a set of evidence-based assessment tools to diagnose, measure, and track these four factors. It will also provide actionable tips and guidance for addressing potential deficiencies, which existing measurement tools lack. The team's deliverables will be made publicly available to interested organizations, associations, and researchers.
EMPOWER Safety Dashboards: Evaluate, Measure, and Promote Offshore Worker Engagement and Readiness
Award Amount: $943,008
Project Director: Stephanie Payne (Texas A&M University)
Project Team Affiliation: Texas A&M University in cooperation with Upstreams Forensics LLC
Overview: Traditionally, safety culture is measured with a lengthy annual employee survey. Survey methodology is fraught with limitations including low response rates, considerable time required to summarize and interpret data, and failure to capture meaningful changes between surveys. This project aims to develop and test field-friendly measurement tools, including experience sampling methodology and wearable devices; and to design, develop, and evaluate the value of a dashboard called EMPOWER (Evaluate, Measure, Promote Offshore Worker Engagement and Readiness). The EMPOWER dashboard will display worker psychological (safety culture) and physiological (lack of fatigue or readiness) data on an interactive interface that supervisors can access daily to support organizational decision making. The research team will evaluate the extent to which supervisors value and anticipate using such previously unavailable data in real time; as well as the data's impact on hypothetical offshore scenario-based decision-making.
Developing an Integrated Offshore Energy Industry Safety Culture Evaluation, Benchmarking, and Improvement Toolbox
Award Amount: $1,440,330
Project Director: Kevin McSweeney (American Bureau of Shipping)
Project Team Affiliation: American Bureau of Shipping in cooperation with Lamar University and the University of Houston
Overview: There is a general perception in the offshore industry that more rules, regulations, and procedures are unlikely to improve safety performance. Instead, the industry needs a better understanding of the social and organizational factors that foster professionalism during routine and emergency situations. This project aims to develop a roadmap that the industry can use to evaluate and improve organizational safety culture, reduce unsafe behaviors, improve individual performance, and reduce management system failures, near misses, and accidents. Deliverables will include a safety culture evaluation toolbox, and data gathering and analytic methods to identify what actions have been, or could be, successful in improving safety.
All projects selected underwent an external peer-review process. These projects are the winners of the Gulf Research Program's Safer Offshore Energy Systems (SOES) Grants 4 funding competition. For more information about the Gulf Research Program's grant opportunities, visit nationalacademies.org/gulf/grants.
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The National Academies' Gulf Research Program is an independent, science-based program founded in 2013 as part of legal settlements with the companies involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. It seeks to enhance offshore energy system safety and protect human health and the environment by catalyzing advances in science, practice, and capacity to generate long-term benefits for the Gulf of Mexico region and the nation. The program has $500 million for use over 30 years to fund studies, projects, and other activities in the areas of research and development, education and training, and monitoring and synthesis. Visit nationalacademies.org/gulf to learn more.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. The Academies operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit nationalacademies.org.
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Greg Armstrong of Houston Reappointed Chair of Dallas Fed Board; Tom Falk of Irving Reappointed Deputy Chair
DALLAS, Texas, Jan. 18 -- The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas issued the following news release:
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors has reappointed Greg L. Armstrong as chair and Thomas J. Falk as deputy chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas board of directors for 2020.
Armstrong is co-founder and retired chairman and CEO of Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline LP. He previously served as president, CEO and director of Plains Resources.
He was appointed to the Dallas Fed board in 2015 and reappointed in 2019 for a three-year term. He served as deputy chair of the board in 2018.
Armstrong
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DALLAS, Texas, Jan. 18 -- The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas issued the following news release:
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors has reappointed Greg L. Armstrong as chair and Thomas J. Falk as deputy chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas board of directors for 2020.
Armstrong is co-founder and retired chairman and CEO of Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline LP. He previously served as president, CEO and director of Plains Resources.
He was appointed to the Dallas Fed board in 2015 and reappointed in 2019 for a three-year term. He served as deputy chair of the board in 2018.
Armstrongis a member of Plains All American's and National Oilwell Varco Inc.'s board of directors, the advisory board of Cox School's Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University, immediate past chairman of the National Petroleum Council and is an honorary lifetime board member of The Council on Recovery.
Armstrong holds a bachelor's degree from Southeastern Oklahoma State University and is a certified public accountant (inactive).
Falk joined the Dallas Fed board in 2019 and was reappointed for a three-year term ending December 31, 2022.
Falk, a 36-year veteran of Kimberly-Clark Corporation, is retired chairman and CEO of the Irving-based company.
Falk serves on the board of Lockheed Martin, University of Wisconsin Chancellor's Advisory Board and as a National Governor of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He also chaired the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas' 2013 fundraising campaign, and he and his wife, Karen, are chairing the 2019-20 campaign.
He received his bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Wisconsin and a master of science in management from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Each Federal Reserve Bank has a nine-member board of directors. Three members represent commercial banks, three represent the public and three are appointed by the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C.
For more information on the Dallas Fed, visitwww.dallasfed.org.
Fannie Mae Multifamily Closes 2019 With Record Volume of More Than $70 Billion
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 -- Fannie Mae issued the following corporate news release:
Fannie Mae (FNMA/OTCQB) provided more than $70 billion in financing to support the multifamily market in 2019, the highest volume in the history of its Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS(R)) program. Fannie Mae continues to build a broad and diverse investor base, while providing financing that meets the needs of our customers in all multifamily market segments in the United States.
"Our DUS program is well positioned to support the secondary market and play a key role as a stable source of liquidity for rental
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 -- Fannie Mae issued the following corporate news release:
Fannie Mae (FNMA/OTCQB) provided more than $70 billion in financing to support the multifamily market in 2019, the highest volume in the history of its Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS(R)) program. Fannie Mae continues to build a broad and diverse investor base, while providing financing that meets the needs of our customers in all multifamily market segments in the United States.
"Our DUS program is well positioned to support the secondary market and play a key role as a stable source of liquidity for rentalhousing and underserved communities," said Jeffery Hayward, Executive Vice President of Multifamily, Fannie Mae. "Our goal is to build a profitable and sustainable book of business while continuing to provide support for the market."
Fannie Mae's Green mortgage-backed securities (MBS) issuances increased 13 percent to $22.8 billion in 2019, totaling $75 billion since the program's inception in 2010. Fannie Mae Green MBS can be backed by green certified properties or properties targeting a significant reduction in energy or water consumption.
Fannie Mae broadened the sources of liquidity available to the market in 2019 with its Multifamily Credit Risk Transfer (MCRT) program, which mitigates credit risk by transferring a portion of its risk to reinsurers and investors and increasing the role of private capital in the multifamily market.
"We want to thank our DUS lender partners for an outstanding 2019. Together, we supported all market segments and built a portfolio of mission-rich business," said Rob Levin, Senior Vice President for Multifamily Customer Engagement, Fannie Mae. "Our Multifamily Affordable Housing volume rose over 20 percent to $7.2 billion, demonstrating our firm commitment to the preservation of affordable housing for families across the country."
The following top 10 DUS Lenders produced the highest business volumes in 2019. Also listed below are the Top 5 Lender rankings for highest volumes in 2019 for Multifamily Affordable Housing, Small Loans, Green Financing, Seniors Housing, Structured Transactions, Manufactured Housing Communities, and Student Housing:
Top 10 Producers in 2019 Volume ($Billion)
1. Walker & Dunlop, LLC $8.5
2. CBRE Multifamily Capital, Inc. $7.2
3. Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital $6.6
4. Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, LLC $5.8
5. Greystone Servicing Company LLC $5.6
6. PGIM Real Estate Finance $5.0
7. Capital One, National Association $4.4
8. KeyBank National Association $3.5
9. Arbor Commercial Funding I, LLC $3.3
10. Newmark Knight Frank $3.1
Top 5 DUS Producers for Multifamily Affordable Housing in 2019
1. Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital
2. Greystone Servicing Company LLC
3. Jones Lang LaSalle Multifamily, LLC
4. KeyBank National Association
5. CBRE Multifamily Capital, Inc.
Top 5 DUS Producers for Small Loans in 20191
1. Arbor Commercial Funding I, LLC
2. Greystone Servicing Company LLC
3. Hunt Real Estate Capital
4. Walker & Dunlop, LLC
5. Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, LLC
Top 5 DUS Producers for Green Financing in 20192
1. Walker & Dunlop, LLC
2. Greystone Servicing Company LLC
3. CBRE Multifamily Capital, Inc.
4. Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, LLC
5. M&T Realty Capital Corporation
Top 5 DUS Producers for Seniors Housing in 2019
1. CBRE Multifamily Capital, Inc.
2. Capital One, National Association
3. Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, LLC
4. M&T Realty Capital Corporation
5. PNC Real Estate
Top 5 DUS Producers for Structured Transactions in 2019
1. CBRE Multifamily Capital, Inc.
2. Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital
3. Capital One, National Association
4. PGIM Real Estate Finance
5. KeyBank National Association
Top 5 DUS Producers for Manufactured Housing Communities in 2019
1. Walker & Dunlop, LLC
2. PNC Real Estate
3. Hunt Real Estate Capital
4. Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital, LLC
5. Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital
Top 5 DUS Producers for Student Housing in 2019
1. Capital One, National Association
2. Walker & Dunlop, LLC
3. Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, LLC
4. CBRE Multifamily Capital, Inc.
5. PGIM Real Estate Finance
Listed below are 2019 production highlights for individual business categories, which are included in the total multifamily production number.
* Affordable Housing - $7.8 billion, comprised of $7.2 billion in Multifamily Affordable Housing (for rent-restricted properties and properties receiving other federal and state subsidies), an increase of 21 percent from $6.0 billion in 2018; and $629 million for properties with rent restrictions between 60 percent and 80 percent area median income
* Small Loans1 - $4.8 billion
* Green Financing2 - $22.8 billion, an increase of 13 percent from $20.1 billion in 2018
* Student Housing - $2.7 billion
* Structured Transactions - $8.6 billion
* Seniors Housing - $3.1 billion, an increase of 35 percent from $2.3 billion in 2018
* Manufactured Housing Communities - $2.5 billion
1Small Loans are defined as loans of $6 million or less nationwide and loans for properties with 5-50 units.
2Green Loans are defined as loans for properties with Green Building Certifications or loans targeting a 30 percent reduction or more in energy or water consumption, inclusive of at least 15 percent energy reduction consumption.
Due to rounding, amounts reported may not add up to overall totals.
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Fannie Mae helps make the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and affordable rental housing possible for millions of Americans. We partner with lenders to create housing opportunities for families across the country. We are driving positive changes in housing finance to make the home buying process easier, while reducing costs and risk. To learn more, visit fanniemae.com and follow us on twitter.com/FannieMae.
David E. Wildt, Renowned Scientist and Conservationist Dies
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 -- Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute issued the following news release:
A cow is not a cheetah. Yet against all odds, the fate of this iconic cat will be forever tied to a farm boy from Chandlerville, Illinois, whose would-be career as a livestock husbandry scientist took a wild turn forty years ago. David E. Wildt, renowned scientist and conservationist died at his home on January 15, 2020, surrounded by his family. He was 69. Wildt retired as the Director of the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute's Center for Species Survival in December
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 -- Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute issued the following news release:
A cow is not a cheetah. Yet against all odds, the fate of this iconic cat will be forever tied to a farm boy from Chandlerville, Illinois, whose would-be career as a livestock husbandry scientist took a wild turn forty years ago. David E. Wildt, renowned scientist and conservationist died at his home on January 15, 2020, surrounded by his family. He was 69. Wildt retired as the Director of the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute's Center for Species Survival in December2018. A seminal leader in conservation biology, his prolific breakthroughs in reproductive biology and population genetics benefitted wildlife enormously. Wildt established genome resource banks and developed ground-breaking assisted reproductive technologies for giant pandas to name just one of more than 50 endangered species. His scientific legacy includes more than 300 scientific papers and mentorship and training of hundreds of graduate and post-doctoral students, and colleagues around the world.
Wildt's early pioneering work on the cheetahs led to the creation of the New Opportunities in Animal Health Sciences (NOAHS Center) in 1988 fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among the National Zoo, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Cancer Institute, with the mission to promote the health, genetic diversity, and reproduction of endangered species in zoo and wild populations.
In 2005, he was one of the founding visionaries to establish the Conservation Centers for Species Survival, now based in Texas. This unique consortium was born out of an urgent need for science-driven programs and greater collaboration between facilities managing critically endangered species and private landowners. To date, these Conservation Centers have helped save some of the world's rarest animals, from the black-footed ferret to the cheetah, giant panda, Florida panther, Scimitar-horned oryx and others dependent on large tracts of land to thrive.
In 2017, Wildt received the Smithsonian Institution's Distinguished Scholar Award in the Sciences. He also received scientific achievement awards from Illinois State University, the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
In 1994, Wildt married fellow conservationist Susie Ellis, executive director for the International Rhino Foundation. Their vital collaboration continues to impact the conservation of numerous wildlife species. But, it was the human species that brought Wildt his great joy. He is survived by daughter Chelsea Taft, her husband Beau and grandsons Noah and Jackson, as well as stepsons Zachary Joseph (wife Cassie), and Maxwell Joseph (wife Stephanie), and granddaughter Everett as well as numerous treasured academic offspring. He also is survived by his mother, Louise Wildt, brother Alan Wildt (wife Margaret) of Virginia, IL, and their three children. Wildt and Ellis are canine parents to Ivy La Fleur (IVF), a female from the first litter of dogs birthed in 2015 via in vitro fertilization. Wildt's SCBI team partnered with researchers at Cornell University to successfully use in vitro fertilization (IVF) to produce live, healthy domestic puppies from cryopreserved (frozen) embryos.
The mechanical darling of Wildt's eye was his prized 1950 John Deere A tractor, a family heirloom. He realized a lifetime dream of driving it across Michigan's Mackinac Bridge in 2018. Wildt savored quiet summer afternoons wandering around his beloved Shenandoah Valley acreage, ensuring that the property was pristine. Another passion was orchestrating annual elaborate July 4th firework displays at the annual family gathering on the family farm in Illinois. He was a founding member of "Men at Meatloaf," a group of six cherished friends who meet religiously at the Strasburg Diner on Tuesday nights for dinner.
Wildt was born and raised in rural Illinois. Cherishing his farm heritage, Wildt grew up on a family livestock and grain farm with many pets and participated in 4-H and Future Farmers of America. Wildt was married to Brenda Baldwin in 1970 through 1985 and remained friends. He received his bachelor's degree in animal science from Illinois State University in 1972 and his master's degree in animal husbandry from Michigan State University in 1973. Wildt also completed his doctoral studies at Michigan State University, studying physiology and animal husbandry under the supervision of eminent primatologist Dr. Richard Dukelow.
Wildt will be buried in Walnut Ridge Cemetery in Virginia, Illinois, in his family plot. A memorial service and celebration of his life will take place later this Spring in Strasburg, Virginia. In lieu of flowers, a fund will be established to host thought leaders at SCBI and continue the mentoring that was so important to Wildt.
Wildt is remembered as an insatiable worker, eminent scientist, highly ethical leader, caring mentor, farm-boy at heart, and a loving father and husband.
DOE Employee Debarred From Federal Employment for Violating the Hatch Act by Providing Tour to a Political Candidate
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 -- The U.S. Office of Special Counsel issued the following news release:
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) announced a settlement agreement reached with a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) employee who violated the Hatch Act when she provided a guided tour of a radioactive waste treatment plant in Washington State to a candidate for U.S. Congress. The purpose of the tour, which was not open to the general public, was to provide the candidate with information for her campaign. The candidate had repeatedly sought a tour of the plant to demonstrate her familiarity with the
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 -- The U.S. Office of Special Counsel issued the following news release:
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) announced a settlement agreement reached with a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) employee who violated the Hatch Act when she provided a guided tour of a radioactive waste treatment plant in Washington State to a candidate for U.S. Congress. The purpose of the tour, which was not open to the general public, was to provide the candidate with information for her campaign. The candidate had repeatedly sought a tour of the plant to demonstrate her familiarity with theproject to potential voters. However, citing potential Hatch Act violations, DOE denied her requests.
In its November 8, 2019 complaint filed (https://osc.gov/News/Pages/20-05-Hatch-Act-Tour-Candidate.aspx) with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), OSC deemed the employee's actions to be a flagrant Hatch Act violation because she knew that DOE had previously denied the candidate's tour requests. Moreover, just three days before she gave the tour, the employee received a reminder about how such a tour could violate the Hatch Act. Despite having this information, the employee unilaterally used her official authority to give the tour. Information and photographs from the tour were then used to further the candidate's campaign.
After OSC's complaint was filed, the employee voluntarily resigned from her employment at DOE as of January 4, 2020. As part of the settlement agreement, she admitted to violating the Hatch Act and agreed to a 3-year debarment from federal employment.
