Gary Barrett is Director of the USDA Forest Service National Partnership Office, an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service, and an Associate Professor at Virginia Tech University.

Mr. Barrett was the former Deputy Director and Senior Advisor of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA), USAID’s only office dedicated to advancing U.S. public diplomacy objectives. Mr. Barrett served as both a Senior Program Advisor and Senior Field Program Manager for the USAID Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) in Afghanistan. While there, he helped to manage programs in both the South and Southwest of the country.

Mr. Barrett worked for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) as the Head of Office for the UN Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC) in South Sudan. There, he and his team coordinated the logistics of United Nations humanitarian assistance to South Sudan and worked to professionalize the newly created Government of South Sudan Ministry of Transportation and Roads. His team also provided technical assistance and recommendations on the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).

For 12 years, Mr. Barrett worked for the USAID Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance in the Forest Service’s Disaster Assistance Support Program (DASP), where he provided essential technical support in global disaster response management, planning, operations, preparedness, and prevention.

Before joining the federal government in 1997 as a civilian, Mr. Barrett served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Mr. Barrett holds a master’s degree from Yale University School of the Environment, a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College, and a Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance from Fordham University. Mr. Barrett was also a Senior Executive Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Mr. Barrett is currently the immediate past president of the Yale School of the Environment Alumni Association Board and a current Yale University Eli Ambassador.