Appointed by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr, on January 20, 2021, to serve as Acting Administrator, USAID, Gloria Steele was a distinguished career member of the U.S. Government’s Senior Executive Service for over 18 years. Before retiring from Federal service, she served as the Acting Assistant Administrator and Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Asia from 2015 to 2020. Prior to those assignments, she served as USAID’s Mission Director for the Philippines, the Pacific Islands, and Mongolia, from 2010-2015, where she oversaw a program budget of over $500 million.
Prior to being posted in Manila, Ms. Steele served as the Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Global Health. She assumed this position in January 2005, overseeing an average annual health program budget of $1.5 billion and a staff of 240. From 2001-2004, she served as Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia. She also worked for seven years in the Bureau for Africa as an agricultural economist, and seven years in the Bureau for Science and Technology, overseeing applied research on key rural development issues such as land tenure, access to agricultural credit, food security, and natural resource management. Ms. Steele served for one year in the Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination, where she led the development of USAID’s first food security policy.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Steele served as a Management Consultant to the Philippines’ Secretary of Agriculture, and taught Business Economics at Letran Graduate School for Business in Manila.
Ms. Steele received a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from Kansas State University, and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Maryknoll College in the Philippines. Her awards include a Presidential Meritorious Executive Award in 2007, Presidential Distinguished Executive Awards in 2008 and 2018, and the Order of Sikatuna award from the President of the Philippines in 2015.