John Watson

Minority Serving Institution (MSI) Program Coordinator for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Mr. John M. Watson is the Deputy Director of Programs for the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Mr. Watson joined USAID in November 2008 in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. He has served as Senior Program Manager in the Office of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA)/Office of Civilian Response (OCR) as the Deployment Coordinator for the Civilian Response Corp Program. In 2010 he was temporarily assigned to USAID Afghanistan Mission for the field implementation of the Synchronized Pre-deployment Operational Tracker (S.P.O.T.) program. Mr. Watson joined OSDBU in 2011 and has served as a small business specialist before becoming the Agency’s Minority Serving Institutions Coordinator. The mission of the MSI Coordinator is to promote inclusion of colleges and universities that are underrepresented in federal programs and activities. Mr. Watson served as the acting Director of External Outreach and Strategic Recruitment (XOSR) in the Office of Human Capitol and Talent Management before becoming the Deputy Director of Programs within OSDBU. He served as the acting Director for OSDBU for 18 months between FY20 and FY21.

He holds a B.S. in Accounting from Hampton Institute (University) and MBA from the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor; Certified as a Contracting Officer Technical Representative and Assistance Officer Technical Representative.

Prior to joining USAID, he served as a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Army Ordnance Corp.