page_title: Kathleen Merrigan
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Kathleen Merrigan / Career
caption_attribution_description: Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and FNS Southeast Regional Administrator Donald Arnette give a thumbs up with the cafeteria nutrition staff while visiting Carl G. Renfroe Middle School in Decatur, GA, during National School Lunch Week and Farm to School Month on Friday, October 14, 2011. (USDA photo by Debbie Smoot).
context_page_description: Kathleen Ann Merrigan was sworn in as the United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture on April 8, 2009. She resigned from this position on March 14, 2013. She was the first woman to chair the Ministerial Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2011. She was the former Executive Director of the Sustainability Collaborative at the George Washington University. At GW she also led the GW Food Institute and was a Professor of Public Policy. She was named "100 most influential people in the world" by Time Magazine in 2010.
context_section_description: She worked at Tufts University as Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
  She assisted in writing the 1990 Organic Foods Production Act while a professional staff member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt), Chairman of the Committee, introduced the Act and ensured it became law as part of the Food, Agriculture, Conservation and Trade Act of 1990.  Senator Leahy said of Ms. Merrigan, "[her] tireless efforts and patience led to comprehensive legislation that creates a first-ever national organic certification program and revamps important agricultural research programs." 
  In 1999, she began her career at the USDA by heading the Agricultural Marketing Service. At the USDA Merrigan created, led, and managed the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative. This initiative strengthened USDA programs in order to support local food systems around the country. Merrigan helped develop USDA's organic labeling rules while head of the Agricultural Marketing Service from 1999 to 2001.
caption: Merrigan posing with cafeteria nutrition staff while visiting Carl G. Renfroe Middle School in Decatur, Georgia in 2011
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