About me
Brian V. Guse serves as the first permanent Director of the USDA Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP), a department wide resource housed within USDA’s Natural Resources and Conservation Service. OUAIP was authorized under the 2018 Farm Bill to improve USDA’s support for urban and innovative farming operations. As the first permanent Director, Brian is responsible for the build-out, direction and oversight of this new office and staff. Prior to taking this position, Brian served for 22 years with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), where he oversaw USDA’s international food aid and fellowship programs as well as the numerous technical assistance and capacity building programs that promote U.S. government trade capacity building and food security goals and objectives. Brian also served as USDA’s lead representative on the U.S. Government’s interagency Global Food Security Act working group working closely with the National Security Council, State Department and USAID. Earlier in his career with FAS, Brian served as Director of the Trade and Scientific Exchanges Division and as Deputy Director of the Development Resources and Disaster Assistance Division. Prior to joining USDA, Brian worked for Associates in Rural Development (ARD, Inc.) in Burlington, Vermont where he helped manage a variety of domestic and international rural and agricultural development and natural resources management programs. Brian holds a Master’s degree in Public Affairs - Environmental Policy and Natural Resources Management from Indiana University and received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri – Columbia. As part of his undergraduate program, Brian studied in Denmark where he studied International Business and Nordic-Soviet relations. Brian served as an agriculture volunteer with the U.S. Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa.