Spotlight: Maria Price Detherage
Maria Price Detherage is USAID’s Deputy Assistant Administrator (DAA) of the Africa Bureau, with a portfolio that includes executive-level oversight and management for USAID programs in Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the Southern Africa Regional Program, and the Administrative Management of the full Africa Bureau.
As a career member of the Senior Executive Service since 2005, she joined USAID in 2013 and has served in USAID as its Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer (DCHCO) and the Director of the Office of Civil Rights and Diversity. Prior to joining USAID, she served in several key senior leadership positions at HHS, including DCHCO and the first Executive Director of its Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals. Maria Price Detherage started her federal career at HHS in 1989 as a graduate fellow and internal consultant in the Center for Management Excellence where she served as an internal consultant to the Department’s policy arm on Equal Employment Opportunity and Labor Relations.
Ms. Detherage is also a member of the Federal Coaching Network, Federal Executive Institute Alumni Association, Harvard Kennedy School of Executive Education Alumni, the American Association of Arbitrator, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, where she served as chair of the Global Poverty Committee. She has been recognized in the “1999 Edition of “International Who’s Who of Professionals” and is the president of the LPGA Amateurs Golf Association. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Detherage was awarded the “2013 International Women’s Day Award” for her local and international work in global poverty. In addition to being a federal public servant, she considers herself a global citizen, global volunteer, and a social entrepreneur. In a 2016 interview at the White House’s FedWomenLead Executive Program, she summed up her personal thoughts on public service by saying, “Being a public servant means being able to give the best of me to ensure the best for others, all across the globe. For me, it’s that simple.”
