Ruth Buckley is the Acting Performance Improvement Officer for USAID and Acting Director of the Bureau for Management’s Office of Management Policy, Budget and Performance. She has 29 years of experience with USAID, both overseas and in Washington, and is a member of the Senior Executive Service.

As Acting PIO, Ms. Buckley provides advice and counsel to Agency leadership on effective management of USAID programs and budget; oversees implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act; provides executive support for the President’s Management Agenda; and ensures goals of the Agency are achieved through effective results management and efficient use of resources. As Acting Director of M/MPBP, Ms. Buckley provides oversight and direction for USAID’s operational and regulatory policy, operational budget, operational strategic planning, continuous performance improvement, compliance and the Bureau’s administrative management. Her executive leadership of business process reviews across eight functions has resulted in 91 percent of the recommendations being implemented or in progress reducing process times by as much as 50 percent.

Prior to joining the M Bureau, Ms. Buckley held several senior positions in the Africa Bureau. While serving as the Program Officer for South Sudan, she represented USAID on three multi-donor trust funds; created an innovative program to build responsibility for the delivery of local services in conflict zones; and, partnered with the government of Southern Sudan to develop a plan to strengthen their capacity to stand up a new nation. As the Senior Behavioral Science Advisor in the Africa Bureau, she created data driven models to inform budget decisions based on need, foreign policy priority, and country performance; provided direction for the development of the Agency’s first strategy for engagement in Africa’s fragile states; and, established the evidence base for using development funding to counter terrorism. These new business models established a basis for adaptive and responsive budgeting and programming while providing sound oversight of Agency resources and increasing the effectiveness and resilience of development programs. She has brought this in-depth experience in achieving results in complex environments to developing strategic solutions and continuous improvement to our most intractable operational and organizational problems.

Ms. Buckley received her Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology from Brown University and her Master’s in Business Administration from Devry University.