Chris Coppenbarger

Mr. Coppenbarger is the Senior Grants System Advisor for ezFedGrants at USDA OCFO. He is a key visionary for USDA’s enterprise-wide grants management solution, which is part of USDA’s National Finance Center’s shared financial services. Chris provides senior level functional support, including key roles in marketing services, expanding system functionality, supporting client agencies, and implementing governance structure. His efforts are aligned with providing greater transparency, accountability, efficiency, and cost savings. He currently collaborates with multiple agencies to ensure USDA’s compliance with grant related Federal statutes and regulations, including FFATA/DATA and 2 CFR Part 200.

The ezFedGrants solution currently supports eight USDA agencies' grant programs and approximately $270 billion since 2013. Additional agencies are at various stages of on-boarding with an expectation that all 17 USDA grant making agencies, and their 253 programs, will be in the system by the end of 2023.

Chris has over 15 years of Federal grant and related agreements experience, including positions at the National Institute of Food & Agriculture (Senior Policy Advisor), Foreign Agricultural Service (Agency Grants Management Officer), Forest Service (Grants Policy Analyst and Presidential Management Fellow). Chris also served in the Peace Corps in Tanzania. He earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence from South Texas College of Law Houston, and a Master in International Development and Social Change from Clark University.

Chris is the 2016 National Grants Management Association Impact/Public Sector Award recipient.