Ms. Michelle Garner
Michelle Garner was appointed as the Deputy Chief Financial Officer (DCFO) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Office of the Chief Financial Officer in February 2019. As DCFO, Garner is responsible for providing expertise on budget formulation, execution and performance; communicating the Agency’s policy on financial management and accounting operations, systems and plans; and for integrating and executing technical leadership through strategic planning. These responsibilities support FSIS’ Strategic Goal 3: Achieve Operational Excellence.
Garner joined USDA in 1987 and has served in a variety of financial management roles. From 2001 – 2002, she was a Financial Program Analyst with the Departmental Management Office of Operations. In this role, Garner specialized in providing fiscal operational support, to include preparing status of funds reports, formulating budgets for appropriated, program reimbursable agreements and administrative cost accounts.
From 2002 – 2003, Garner was a Staff Accountant in the USDA Office of the Chief Financial Officer Financial Operations Division. In this capacity, she coordinated the consolidation of support documentation for auditors in the Office of the Inspector General. She also provided detailed analysis of spreadsheets and reports to explain or justify transactions and reconciliation of balances.
Following this position, Garner worked as a Supervisory Systems Accountant in the USDA Agricultural Research Service Administrative and Financial Management Division (FMD) from 2003 – 2011. As team lead, she implemented the Integrated Acquisition System. She was also a part of several working groups that made decisions that impacted the entire Agency, such as eTravel System and the Financial Management Modernization Initiative.
From 2011 – 2016, Garner served as the Deputy Director in the FSIS Office of the Chief Financial Officer FMD. There, Garner managed a multi-disciplinary team encompassing system support, operations, travel, relocation and accounts payable and receivable. She became the director of FMD in 2016.