Agriculture economist, Dr. Spiro Stefanou, has been selected to serve as the new administrator of USDA’s Economic Research Service.
For the past five years, Stefanou has taught economics at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agriculture. Before that, he served 30 years as an agricultural economics professor at Penn State University. He currently holds a part-time appointment as professor in the Business Economics Group at Wageningen University (Netherlands) and presently serves as the managing editor of Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy in addition to being past editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
In a statement, Scott Hutchins, USDA's deputy undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics, said Stefanou will help ERS "thrive as a world-class powerhouse and will continue to build and deliver scientifically-sound economic data and research to help shape U.S. agricultural policy and to better serve our customers and stakeholders across the nation."
A USDA release described Stefanou as an export in production analysis; innovation, growth, and performance; agricultural and food industries; and the dynamics of economic adjustment.
His education includes holding a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of California, Davis, a M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland, and a B.A. in Anthropology from George Washington University.
ERS was one of two agencies relocated to the Kansas City area last year. The agency, along with the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will move into a downtown office there later this year. Stefanou will work in Washington, D.C., with ERS staffers that remained behind after the move.
CORRECTION: A previous edition of this article said USDA employees had already moved into downtown Kansas City office space; according to a USDA spokesperson, ERS and NIFA employees are expected to move into the space later this year. According to USDA, one-third of the ERS workforce is still permanently located in Washington.
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