Michael O'Neill

National Program Leader for Water Resources at the USDA

Mike O'Neill is the national program leader for water resources with the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES). O'Neill joined CSREES in 1998 and is responsible for overseeing a $50 million portfolio of water-related projects for the agency. He is the co-chair of the USDA Working Group on Water Resources and also serves on the interagency Subcommittee on Water Availability and Quality under the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. He also co-chairs the CSREES Committee for Shared Leadership for Water, a unique partnership between land grant universities and CSREES focused on addressing critical water quality and quantity issues in agricultural, rural and urbanizing watersheds.

O'Neill has served in an advisory role to the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) on several water-related initiatives. He has consulted on water quality and water resource management issues in China, northern Africa and the Middle East. He also provides national leadership for agency water programs in the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands.

Prior to joining CSREES, O'Neill was a faculty member in the Department of Geography and Earth Resources and the Watershed Science Unit at Utah State University from 1990-1998, and he served as the watershed extension specialist at Utah State from 1994-1998. O'Neill research and extension programs focused on stream geomorphology and riparian vegetation along western streams. He led projects on stream and river restoration and the effects of streambank erosion on water quality. O'Neill also was a faculty member at Virginia Tech in the Department of Geography from 1986-1990. He has a Ph.D. and M.S. in geography from the University at Buffalo and an A.B. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Biography

Last update: Fri, Mar 27, 2009