New Head for USDA Ag Marketing Service

On Friday, June 25, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Dan Glickman named Kathleen Merrigan the new administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service. She replaces Enrique Figueroa, who now serves as USDA deputy under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs.

As AMS administrator, Merrigan has responsibility for facilitating the strategic marketing of agricultural products in domestic and international markets. Merrigan comes to USDA from the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture where she has been a senior analyst since 1994. Prior to that She had her own consulting firm from 1992 until 1994, and was a senior staff member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture from 1987 until 1992. Her experience also includes work with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Politechnika University in Krakow, Poland.

Figueroa, before serving as administrator of USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service, was associate professor in the Department of Agricultural, Resource and Managerial Economics at Cornell University from 1992 to 1997. From 1986 to 1992, he was and assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Cornell.