The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) during its annual Government Affairs Conference in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Sept. 23, awarded U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) senior officials Dr. Jennifer Tucker and Jonathan Veley with the association’s coveted Champion Award.

This award recognizes Dr. Tucker and Veley for their “Outstanding Leadership, Outreach and Collaboration to Make Government Work Better.” Both Tucker and Veley have worked closely with NCBFAA’s Regulatory Agencies Committee (RAC) leadership throughout the year to ensure a smooth implementation of the USDA’s strengthened regulations for organic imports.

“Throughout the implementation process over the last four years, the folks at the National Organics Program have been great partners,” said RAC Chair Mike Lahar of A.N. Deringer, Inc. “They have been open and thoughtful, willing to work with both trade and industry, balancing the needs of the program with a commonsense approach.”

Shown left to right during the RAC Awards presentations are RAC Chair Mike Lahar of A.N. Deringer; USDA Deputy Director of National Organics Program Dr. Jennifer Tucker, NCBFAA Board Member Monica DeMars of C.H. Robinson, and USDA AMS Director of Trade Activities Jonathan Veley. Photo Credit: NCBFAA.

“The team at the National Organics Program has constructively received and evaluated comments from trade and industry to improve their program to strengthen organic enforcement,” said RAC Vice Chair Adams Lees of Alba Wheels Up. “We are most of appreciative of this collaboration with the agency.”

Dr. Tucker currently serves as USDA’s Deputy Director of the National Organics Program (NOP) in the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). She was Associate Deputy Administrator of NOP from 2011-2018. Before joining USDA, Dr. Tucker served as a group facilitator and organization development consultant, working primarily with scientific and technical government and non-profit organizations. She earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University, an M.S. from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.

Jonathan Veley, Director of International Trade Activities at AMS, is responsible for managing an agency-wide portfolio of trade systems, including import/export certificate systems and international oversight systems. Before joining USDA, Veley served as Chief of Readiness and Deployment in the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Trade. He earned his B.A. from the State University of New York College at Potsdam, and M.S. from State University of New York College at Brockston.

The Regulatory Agencies Committee (RAC) serves as the link between NCBFAA and the Partner Government Agencies (PGAs) – those agencies with regulatory authority over imports and exports.