Office Staff

Troy Hillier serves as an economist in the Office of Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis (ORACBA). In this role he conducts reviews of regulatory risk assessments and cost-benefit analyses for major USDA proposed rules affecting the environment, human health or human safety. He also participates in the interagency review of regulations and guidance of other Federal Agencies that could potentially affect issues of interest to the Department of Agriculture. Before joining the Office of the Chief Economist, Mr. Hillier spent nearly 20 years consulting with public and private sector clients on issues related to regulatory analysis of issues ranging from environmental and energy policy to the definition of bingo. Prior to that, he was a policy analyst at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. Mr. Hillier received his Master of Public Affairs degree from the School of Public and Environmental affairs at Indiana University. He studied as an undergraduate at Northern Michigan University, the London School of Economics and Political Science and Albion College, where he received an AB in Economics and Management.

Dr. Mojduszka is an Economist in the Office of Risk Assessment and Cost and Benefit Analysis (ORACBA), Office of the Chief Economist, USDA. Her responsibilities at ORACBA include reviewing and evaluating regulatory impact, economic, and risk analyses required for qualifying USDA proposed and final rules and regulations that affect food safety, human health, animal and plant health, human safety and the environment. Prior to joining ORACBA in late 2006, Dr. Mojduszka was a professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She also was a Harvard University fellow in the Economics Department and a visiting teaching faculty at Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy. She has published numerous journal articles and book chapters referenced in over fifteen hundred peer reviewed publications and scientific reports. Her research areas include economics and policy of food safety and nutrition; the role of economics in evaluating risk and risk control programs; food standards as non-tariff barriers to trade; discrete choice demand modeling for understanding consumer and firm behavior and public policy; random utility modeling; food safety and nutrition risk management; food safety and nutrition control schemes modeling (with endogenous risk).

Mark Powell serves as risk scientist in the Office of Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis (ORACBA). In this role he conducts reviews of regulatory risk assessments for major USDA proposed rules affecting the environment, human health or human safety. Mark’s primary focus is on sanitary and phytosanitary risks (food safety and animal and plant health). He also participates in the interagency review of regulations and guidance of other Federal Agencies that could potentially affect issues of interest to the Department of Agriculture. Prior to joining ORACBA, Mark was a risk assessment team leader at the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service and a Fellow at Resources for the Future, an environmental think tank. He has a Ph.D. in Ecology and an M.A. in Public Policy from Rutgers University.