Joe's Bio
Dr. Joe Bischoff joined the agriculture and natural resources team at Cornerstone Government Affairs following his work in government and regulatory affairs for a national horticultural trade association. Most of Joe’s work focuses on the intersection of federal programs and the pursuit of science-based solutions to plant health and crop production challenges.He has served on a number of scientific committees including the National Invasive Species Council’s Invasive Species Advisory Committee (ISAC), National Clean Plant Network (NCPN) and the Research Committee of the National Ornamentals Research Site at Dominican University. He has been a Scientific Reviewer for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA), where he was Panel Chair of the Specialty Crop Research Initiative directly following an overhaul of the program’s proposal review process – an effort he helped lead.
Previously, Dr. Bischoff was with the USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) where he was National Mycologist and Lead Scientist on the APHIS Intercepted Plant Pathogen Sequence Initiative (IPPSI).
While pursuing his doctoral degree at Rutgers University, Joe was a Smithsonian Fellow and spent months in the jungles of Costa Rica, Panama, and Guyana collecting and documenting new and rare species. Following his graduate work Joe accepted the position of Fungal Taxonomist with GenBank, the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) genetic sequence database. He has authored over 30 scientific peer-reviewed publications and in 2011 was awarded the USDA-APHIS’s Deputy Administrator’s Safeguarding Award, for his “exceptional work in safeguarding America’s agricultural and natural resources.”