Tracy Hancock Email and Phone Number

As the Senior Innovation Officer in EPA's Office of Science Advisor, Policy, and Engagement (OSAPE) within the Office of Research and Development (ORD), provides vision and leadership in facilitating EPA’s innovation programs, including participatory and community science and challenge and prize competitions.

The Knowledge Management and Communications (KMC) staff serves as the corporate, national-level, deputy area-wide communications function for USDA Forest Service Research and Development (R&D). Forest Service R&D is a world leader in forestry research; the deputy area has approximately 2,000 employees and 500 scientists. This staff is responsible for managing the planning, development, and implementation of communications products, activities, and events for internal and external partners and stakeholders, including universities, other government agencies, private and non-profit sectors, and the general public. The staff provides information technology resources supporting R&D’s websites and an online archive of data from R&D research. The staff also provides for the broad distribution of information to social channels, news and media organizations and the public concerning the objectives, methods, and results of the Agency’s R&D programs. This role manages experts in diverse programs, including science communications, intellectual property, patents, technology transfer, agency history, web services, Research Information Tracking System, Research Data Archive, scientific ethics, peer review, data quality, and records management. This role serves as Designated Federal Official for the Forestry Research Advisory Council and the Technical Advisory Committee member for the U.S. to the Montreal Process Working Group.

Served as national coordinator for the Agency and expert on monitoring and evaluation for land management planning and environmental programs. Developed Agency policies, programs, and activities and led, or co-led, two agency-wide strategic improvement efforts that produced products with partners.Led a cross-organizational and 80-member workgroup to develop a first ever national, landscape-scale mitigation framework in response to the 2012 Presidential Executive Order 13604 to modernize the nation’s infrastructure by accelerating permitting processes while minimizing environmental impacts of those multi-million dollar projects on National Forests. Synchronized work across all levels and with multiple federal agencies, Council of Environmental Quality, Office of Management and Budget, USDA Office of General Council, and USDA Natural Resources and Environment Under Secretary. Participated on core team in initiating the inventory, monitoring, and assessment improvement effort – a high priority agency-wide, cross-deputy area strategic project. This encompassed working with diverse internal and external partners, to find novel solutions to long-standing complex problems involving varied functions and issues affecting critical aspects of land and resource management programs across the agency. Led workgroups for communication and collaboration and an aquatics case study involving external partners from a variety of sectors. Oversaw specialized staff and designed and conducted workshops. Developed a strategy that is currently being implemented.

Led negotiations that produced a precedent-setting public-private partnership for forested land and watershed restoration. Resulted in Memorandum of Understanding, signed at cabinet level, between the USDA Forest Service and The Coca-Cola Company that has already restored 1 billion liters of water on National Forests. Developed similar partnership with Bureau of Reclamation and USDA Forest Service. Developed annual Budget Justification Exhibit on partnerships, involving over 7,800 grants and agreements with partners who contribute around $660 million with a total value often over $1.3 billion, for inclusion in the Forest Service’s annual Congressional Budget Justification. Assisted with development of a proposal for a Restoration Partnerships Budget Line Item.

Senior Policy Advisory at Executive Office of the President, Office of Science and Technology Policy• Develop a broad federal perspective on high-priority challenges by engaging directly with senior decision-makers.• Implement solutions for government-wide issues that require complex inter-agency collaboration.• Strengthen long-term strategic planning to ensure delivery of tangible results. • Lead efforts to implement specific Administration initiatives such as Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goals Focus on CAP Goal: Improve Transfer of Federally Funded Technologies from Lab-to-Market.For more information, see https://www.performance.gov/whldp/

Detail for the Graduate School USA, Executive Potential Program. Covered issue areas of USDA Forest Service appropriations and other environmental and forestry-related topics.

2007-2011: Co-Chair Collaboration and Outreach Workgroup of the National Water Quality Monitoring Council (NWQMC), Member NWQMC Steering Committee, and Executive Secretary of the NWQMC Network for U.S. Coastal Waters and their Tributaries. 2006-2011: Coordinator of Principal Aquifer Circulars and Lead Scientist of the Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Principal Aquifer System Team for the National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. 2003-2006: Lead Scientist, NAWQA, Agricultural Chemical Team, Potomac-Delmarva Study Unit and Unsaturated Zone Pesticides National Publication Team; Project Chief, NAWQA Pesticides National Synthesis Team, Pesticide Properties Project, Virginia Water Science Center. 1998-2002: Project Chief, Virginia Water Science Center, Delmarva NAWQA Project, USGS/USEPA, Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain Regional Surface-Water Quality Landscapes Assessment, and Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain Regional Ground-Water Quality Assessment.

Responsibilities included designing, executing, and reporting on interpretive hydrological, biological, and geochemical studies. Research focused on conducting microbiological, aqueous geochemical and other studies on a variety of environmental problems such as contamination and pollution, toxic trace element contamination, and greenhouse gases. Focus was on the movement, degradation, transformation of contaminants and pollutants under various environmental conditions. Research resulted in a U.S. Patent No. 6,013,254, “Method for Enhancing Oxidation of Methyl Bromide with Strain IMB-1 (ATCC 200197) During Agricultural Fumigations”, by R.S. Oremland, T.C. Hancock, and L.G. Millerand. Patented research work extended into Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with a private company.

Environmental sciences and policy, geology, and trace metal clean laboratory techniques.

Built and tested liquid and gas chromatographs and tested columns. Worked part-time through college and full-time over summers.