Mr. Matthew Faulkner

Mr. Faulkner is Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and is responsible for the Office of Grants and Financial Management in Kansas City. He joined NIFA from USDA’s Rural Development Mission Area where during his tenure he was the Director of Enterprise Risk Management and Director of the Continuous Process Improvement office from September 2014 through April 2020. Prior to this he worked at USDA’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer for eight years as the Director of the Credit, Travel and Grants Policy Division. He has extensive Departmental experience in multiple Farm Bill implementations, full lifecycle management of federal assistance programs including credit and grant programs, strategic and operational performance management, and enterprise deployment of continuous process improvement. During his 37 years at USDA, he has strived to improve program efficiency and effectiveness to benefit customers, stakeholders, and employees. He led the Department’s Grants Management Line of Business initiative, with 14 grant-making USDA agencies, establishing the To-Be Process for end-to-end grants management. This initiative provided the requirements for ezFedGrants; a comprehensive grants and agreements management solution that allows agencies, and their customers, to efficiently manage online throughout the entire agreement lifecycle. Besides his 25 years in Washington, DC, he also has worked at a county office providing program services to farmers and ranchers. Mr. Faulkner received a Master of Science in Management from Baker University and a Bachelor of Science in Human Resources Management from Friends University in Kansas. With his diverse management background, supporting programs with excellent customer experience, he is very pleased to be working for a science agency.