Census Bureau names Florence 2010 Census Office staff

The U.S. Census Bureau has appointed a slate of managers for a new 2010 Census office in Florence at 400-E E. Southvillage Blvd.

The new managers — all area residents — are Maxwell Biggs, local census office manager; Magdaline Palmer, assistant manager for field operations; John J. Kirkland, assistant manager for quality assurance; Machelle Cormell, assistant manager for administration; Juanita Jones, assistant manager for recruiting; and Milinda Conyers, assistant manager for technology.

The Florence office supports census operations in Dillon, Florence, Georgetown, Horry and Marion counties, according to a Census Bureau press release.

Two offices opened in 2008 to carry out operations to prepare for the census in the state. They are located in Charleston and Columbia. The Florence office is one of six new local census offices in South Carolina, bringing the total number to eight.

Biggs, a 22-year U.S. Navy veteran, has served as an instructor for several Fortune 500 companies. He is a member of the American Society for Training and Development and the International Society for Performance Improvement.

Palmer has a 16-year career in bioscience. A 1987 graduate of Voorhees College, Palmer was deputy director of operations for a Washington, D.C.-based company that provided services for 15 government agencies.

After a career in radio ad sales and landscaping, Kirkland enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was trained as a nuclear, chemical and biological defense specialist.

Cormell is a native of Florence and has 23 years of experience in human resources.

Jones has had an extensive background in customer service and management. She began working with the 2010 Census last year and served as recruiting assistant and field operations supervisor.

Conyers has 20 years experience in management support, specializing in accounting and computer technology. She is a graduate of Francis Marion University and Florence-Darlington Technical College.

Census counts are used to determine the number of congressional seats for each state, the shape of legislative and local government districts, and how more than $400 billion in federal funds is distributed annually to communities across the country.

April 1, is Census Day, the reference day for collecting census information from every household in America. Census questionnaires will be mailed or delivered in mid-March. The South Carolina offices will close after census operations end in 2010.

For more census information, visit http://www.2010census.gov online.