Dr. Carol S. Kramer-Leblanc, Director of the USDA's Research And Scientific Exchange Division, to Visit Taiwan

PR0004E | Date: 2000-01-14

Dr. Carol S. Kramer-LeBlanc will visit Taiwan from January 16 - 19 to discuss the possibility of renewing research exchanges between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Council of Agriculture (COA) with partial funding from the USDA's Cooperation Program in Agricultural Sciences. This program is designed to facilitate exchange of information, skills, and techniques between agricultural scientists and institutions from around the world.

From 1986 to 1993, the USDA and the COA conducted 55 cooperative research activities valued at $7.3 million in the areas of crops, fisheries, animal husbandry, forestry and biotechnology. These research activities were partially funded by the USDA Scientific Cooperation Program.

While Dr. Kramer-LeBlanc is in Taiwan she will meet with counterparts at the Council of Agriculture's International Cooperation Department to discuss the future of US-Taiwan agricultural scientific exchanges. She will also visit the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center.

As Director of Research and Scientific Exchanges at the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, Kramer-LeBlanc oversees a varied program of collaborative research, scientific cooperation, and technical exchange with dozens of international partners. Priority subjects addressed include: agricultural development and trade; plant and animal genetic improvement and seed commercialization; natural resource, soil, and water conservation; food economics and market analysis; and mutually beneficial uses of biotechnology.

Kramer-LeBlanc also served as Staff Director and then as Deputy Executive Director for the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. She was also the Associate Director of the Resources and Technology Division of the USDA Economic Research Service; and both Deputy Director and Branch Chief with the Natural Resources and Environment Division for the USDA Economic Research Service.

Before joining the U.S. Government, Kramer-LeBlanc was a Fellow at the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy at Resources for the Future, a Washington, D.C. based think tank, and as an assistant professor at Cornell University, Michigan State University (adjunct, in Senegal), and at Kansas State University. She also worked in Senegal for 2 years with the U.S. Agency for International Development. Kramer-LeBlanc received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1982 with a specialization in agricultural economics, particularly public finance, public program and policy analysis, trade, and development.

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