Janet A Cushing

Janet Cushing is a Scientist Emeritus with the USGS Water Resources Mission Area. She recently retired from the Department of the Interior, with her last position being the Chief Policy Analyst in the Office of Policy Analysis. Janet began working for the federal government in 1999 in the US Army Corps of Engineer’s (USACE) Jacksonville District, in the Regulatory Division. She then went to the Planning Division, where she worked on Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan projects. In 2005, Janet moved to the DC area, and spent three and a half years working at the USGS in what was then called the Biological Resources Discipline (BRD). There, she managed the Fisheries Program research portfolio and coordinated science and data issues for the Governing Board of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan. Janet was also the designated Tribal Liaison for BRD.

In 2009, Janet returned to the USACE, at the Institute for Water Resources (IWR), where she was Branch Manager of an interdisciplinary team and Senior Environmental Planner. As an environmental planner, Janet worked on a number of issues, including ecosystem goods and services considerations in water resources planning; managing an ecosystem restoration planning class; investigating the implications of climate change effects on USACE programs; incorporating environmental justice analyses into the USACE Planning Process; and coastal resilience through the Systems Approach to Geomorphic Engineering program. 

Janet returned to USGS from 2015-2023 to serve as Deputy Senior Administrator of the USGS National Climate Adaptation Science Center (NCASC). In that role she directed the operations of the CASC network, overseeing full program evaluations of the regional CASCs, developing input to the President's Budget, and overseeing the development of strategic plans. She spent a year as Acting Senior Administrator for the network, and served as Interim Director of the Pacific Islands and Southwest CASCs on separate occasions.

Janet is a 2011 Fellow of the National Conservation Leadership Institute, which focuses on leadership development within the context of natural resources management. She holds a master’s degree in Geology and Geophysics from the University of Hawai'i, and an undergraduate degree in Geology from Colgate University in New York; she has also conducted graduate work in paleoecology/paleontology at the University of Chicago.