Abena Apau joined the NIH Office of Strategic Planning and Management Operations in 2016. During her 3-year tenure, she focused on the NIH’s Change Management program, Administrative Strategic Plan (ASP), and Optimize NIH activities.  Abena joined the USDA’s Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) mission area in the FPAC Business Center (BC) in 2019. Abena joined USDA as the Customer Experience Officer for the newly created Customer Experience Division, which was established in 2018 when the FPAC BC was created. In her current role, Abena is leading efforts to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the customer experience across the 4 FPAC agencies. These efforts include internal/external survey development, journey mapping, and Customer Experience cultural change activities to embed a customer experience approach into the fabric of how we work with our Farmers.  Abena is currently also serving on a detail as the Acting Director for the FPAC’s Performance, Accountability, and Risk Division.

Prior to federal service Abena received a BA in Economics and an MBA from George Washington University. Abena has worked in the fields of strategic and operational planning, process improvement, and change management for 15 years.

Loren DeJonge Schulman is OMB’s Associate Director for Performance and Personnel Management, where she leads on critical Administration priorities, including advancing the President’s Management Agenda, supporting the Federal workforce, furthering evidence-based policy making processes, and making government more accessible, equitable, and effective for the American people. Before OMB, Loren worked at the Partnership for Public Service, where she served as Vice President of Research, Evaluation and Modernizing Government. Loren began her career in public service as a Presidential Management Fellow and spent a decade at the Department of Defense and the National Security Council. After leaving government in 2015, she led research efforts at the Center for a New American Security to elevate the national security debate and prepare the national security leaders of today and tomorrow. Raised in Texas, she received her Bachelor of Arts in political science and international studies from Trinity University and her Master in Public Policy from the University of Minnesota as a Distinguished Fellow for International Peace and Conflict Studies. Loren is an adjunct professor with Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program and a “serial” podcast host for the Partnership’s Profiles in Public Service and the War on the Rocks Bombshell podcast. Raised in Texas, she received her Bachelor of Arts in political science and international studies from Trinity University and her Master in Public Policy from the University of Minnesota, and today lives in Washington, DC, with her family.

.

Natalie Alms is a staff writer at FCW covering federal technology policy, service delivery, customer experience and the government's tech workforce. She is a graduate of Wake Forest University and has written for the Salisbury (N.C.) Post. Connect with Natalie on Twitter at @AlmsNatalie.