In her tenure as Executive Director from 2005 to 2010, Veneman has, like her predecessors, continued to foster a culture of improvement working to strengthen the results-based focus of the organization to most effectively and sustainably achieve the rights of children, in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Veneman, was widely praised for her knowledge and leadership in advancing international trade.

Borlaug with USDA Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman near the birthday cake prepared for his 90th birthday

Veneman served as USDA Secretary from January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2005, leaving to become the fifth executive director of UNICEF.

As the 27th Secretary of the U. S. Department of Agriculture ( USDA ), Veneman managed a department of 111, 000 employees, the sixth-largest employer in the federal government, with personnel in more than 25, 000 buildings around the world ; a program level of $ 113 billion that would rank USDA sixth if it were a U. S. corporation ; a spending level that ranks fifth in the federal government ; a loan portfolio that would rank USDA seventh if it were a U. S. bank ; and one of the most diverse and challenging missions across all of government.

Sworn in as the first female Secretary of USDA on January 20, 2001, Veneman presided over one of the most historic times in American agriculture.

To help lead USDA into the 21st century, in 2001 Veneman released a blueprint for agriculture, Food and Agricultural Policy: Taking Stock for the New Century.

This consistent policy vision, along with Secretary Veneman ’ s bipartisan approach and emphasis on the improved management of USDA, yielded many accomplishments.

USDA also confronted various food safety recalls, prompting Veneman to take several actions to strengthen USDA ’ s regulatory oversight and protections.

As part of several actions to implement the President ’ s Management Agenda ( PMA ), Veneman began USDA ’ s e-Government Initiative, which made an unprecedented array of programs and services available electronically.

Veneman is an Honorary Member of Rotary International ( 2008 ), received Sesame Workshop ’ s Leadership Award for Children ( 2006 ), and a Humanitarian Award from the United Nations Association of New York ( 2006 ).

In 2004 Veneman was honored with an Honorary Membership with the U. S. State Department ’ s U. S .- Afghan Women ’ s Council and an Honorary Membership with Sigma Alpha Sorority, the national professional agriculture sorority.

Veneman is also co-chair of Mothers Day Every Day, along with former U. S. President Bill Clinton ’ s Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.

U. S. Senator Tom Harkin said at Veneman ’ s confirmation hearing, " I was encouraged by the nomination of Ann Veneman to serve as Secretary of Agriculture.

In 2007, Veneman helped launch a partnership with renowned US playwright and ‘ V-Day ’ founder Eve Ensler in 2007, to bring awareness and change to the sexual abuse and violence of women in the DRC.

In December 2009, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said of Veneman, “ She has fulfilled her mandate with immense dedication, and I have been impressed by her extraordinary energy and determination to improve children ’ s health, education and well-being around the world.

Carol Tucker-Foreman of the Consumer Federation of America said of Veneman, “ Secretary Veneman recognized the increasing problem of obesity in this country and took some steps to begin to address it.

In February 2009, marking the International Day against the harmful practice that three million girls and women endure each year, Veneman said, “ Some 70 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to female genital cutting.

* 2004: Co-convener of Women Leaders for WASH ( Water Sanitation and Hygiene ), a high level Advocacy-network to focus on a key health and development-issue for women, together with Executive Director Ann M. Veneman of UNICEF and Minister Maria Mutagamba from Uganda

Veneman also serves as a board member of the Close Up Foundation, a civic education organization, and has served previously on a number of advisory councils and committees, particularly those involving higher education.

In 2004, Veneman finalized the transition from paper food stamps to electronic debit cards in an effort to reduce fraud and increase availability of these programs to more families in need. Under Veneman, after a comprehensive scientific review, new Dietary Guidelines for Americans were released, which formed the basis for USDA's MyPyramid.

Veneman began her legal career as a staff attorney with the General Counsel's office of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District in Oakland, California, in 1976.

At this point Veneman took a break from political and administrative office to practice with the law firm and lobby group Patton, Boggs & Blow and also served on several boards of directors and advisory groups.

From 1999 to 2001 Veneman was an attorney with Nossaman LLP, where she focused her attention on food, agriculture, environment, technology, and trade related issues.

Veneman is currently a board member of Malaria No More, a New York-based nonprofit that was launched at the 2006 White House Summit with the goal of ending all deaths caused by malaria.

In 2002, Veneman was diagnosed with breast cancer and received successful treatment.

On December 23, 2003, Veneman announced the discovery of a single cow with Bovine spongiform encephalopathy ( BSE ), or mad cow disease, in Washington State.

Forbes cited Veneman in part because she " played a key role in the joint effort by UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Population Fund and the World Bank to help accelerate progress on maternal and newborn health in the 25 countries with the highest rates of infant mortality worldwide.

Ann Margaret Veneman ( born June 29, 1949 ) is the former Executive Director of UNICEF, a position she held from 2005 to 2010.

Previously, Veneman was the United States Secretary of Agriculture, the first and only woman to hold that position.

A lawyer by training, Veneman has practiced law in Washington, DC and California, including being a deputy public defender.

Veneman serves as a co-leader of the Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Veneman was raised on a peach farm in Modesto, California.

Her father, John Veneman, was former undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare and member of the California State Assembly.

Veneman joined the United States Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service in 1986, serving as Associate Administrator until 1989.

In 1995 Veneman re-entered government, when she was appointed Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, again being the first woman to hold the position.

Veneman has received several awards and distinctions throughout her career.

In 2009 Veneman was named to the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women list, ranking 46th.

In 2002, Veneman received the California Council for International Trade Golden State Award, the Dutch American Heritage Award, Junior Statesman Foundation Statesman of the Year Award and the United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Distinguished Service Award.

In 2001 Veneman received the Outstanding Woman in International Trade Award, the UC Davis Outstanding Alumna of the Year Award and the Food Research and Action Center Award.

* Gwydion Pendderwen, Anderson's Craft " foster son ", worked with him during the 1950s and ' 60s, helping to edit and publish Victor's book, Thorns of the Blood Rose.

From 1993 to 2005, he worked to foster joint military facilities at the three installations.

During his second term, Clements worked to reduce crime, improve education, boost the Texas economy, and to foster better relations with Mexico, especially on issues important to the mutual borders, such as immigration and the War on Drugs.

" Milian worked with the Children Uniting Nations charity, in which she was a big sister to foster children, and says her favorite charity is the Penny Lane Foundation.

* Karen Weldon said she found her second client, Saratov Aviation, a Russian aerospace manufacturer, in December 2002, through a family friend, who had worked with her father to foster U. S .- Russian business ties.

Thus the children were cared for by the National Child Protection League and foster parents in the country town of Öcsöd, where he worked on a farm.

As founder, leader and principal spokesperson for the CDF, Mrs. Edelman worked to persuade Congress to overhaul foster care, support adoption, improve child care and protect children who are disabled, homeless, abused or neglected.

For four years the program, known then as the Philanthropic Roundtable, held occasional meetings where representatives of foundations and charities could converse with scholars and journalists about the way professional philanthropy was conducted in the U. S. It also published a bimonthly newsletter, Philanthropy ; offered member organizations a talent bank for hiring young staffers from its list of recent college graduates ( almost all of whom had worked at conservative college newspapers partially funded by IEA ); and conducted a " project development service " that assisted members " in examining their own programs ... to foster innovative programming.

Since its inception, Alliance for Justice has worked to advance the cause of justice for all Americans, to strengthen the public interest community's ability to influence public policy, and to foster the next generation of advocates.

The album also included the song " Blue and Brown ," which Wayne wrote about a foster brother who ended up a prison inmate at the correctional facility Wayne worked.

Since 1883, Phi Delta Chi has worked to advance the profession of pharmacy and its allied interests, and to foster and promote a fraternal spirit among its Brothers.

He worked as a farmhand and also as a miner in Eisenerz, until in 1933 he inherited the farmstead of his foster father.

She ran away from the Morgans and found a new foster family, the Kowalskis, that worked at a carnival, but 1986, Dinah was tired of the carnival life and left for Springfield to find her long lost foster sister, Adele.

Meeting Spurgeon allowed Together they worked establish an organization that would foster international cooperation among like-minded academic women.