USDA named Alec Varsamis deputy communications director. A veteran of the first Trump administration, he was press secretary and acting communications director for then-Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue. Since then, Versamis has worked at agencies Ketchum and Veno Group in account supervisor roles focused on agriculture, food and ingredients as well as crisis and issue management communications. He is a graduate of the University of San Francisco.
House Agriculture Committee Republicans promoted Josh Maxwell to deputy staff director. He has been with the committee since 2007, most recently as policy director. Trevor White was promoted to policy director. He was previously a senior professional staff member and has been with the committee since 2017. The committee hired Laura Stagno as a professional staff member working on nutrition. She was a professional staff member on the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies and is an alumna of the first Trump Administration, when she worked at the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.
Additionally, Laurel Lee Chatham joined the House Agriculture Committee Republican staff as a law clerk. She previously covered agriculture issues for Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis. Josie Montoney-Crawford also joined the committee as a professional staff member. She worked for CropLife America and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.
Government affairs firm Perry Jacobson hired USDA alum Leroy Garcia as a partner and Colorado lead as the organization expands into that state. Garcia was chief of staff for the USDA Rural Business Cooperative Service.
Brian Sowyrda is the new Democratic staff director for the House Agriculture Committee. He was previously director of external affairs at USDA. Sowyrda was chief of staff for two former House Ag Committee members: Reps. Yadira Caraveo, D-Colo., and Xochitl Torres Small, D-N.M. He began his career as a district intern for Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
CoBank hired Kyle Perry as vice president and lead relationship manager for electric distribution. He worked for Farm Credit Services of America for eight years, recently as vice president of customer success. Perry earlier worked for the American Farm Bureau Federation.
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President Trump nominated Susan Monarez to lead the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has served as acting CDC director since January. Previously, she worked at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She also served on the National Security Council where she focused on improving U.S. biomedical capabilities and combating antimicrobial resistance. If approved by the Senate, Monarez would become the first non-physician to lead the CDC since the 1950s. Less than two weeks ago, the president withdrew his nomination of Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., for the position.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced new leaders of the Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Risk Management Agency. Bill Beam, a Pennsylvania farmer who was deputy administrator of FSA during the first Trump administration, will return as administrator. He has been president of Rural Investment to Protect Our Environment. Aubrey Bettencou
Aubrey Bettencourt (Photo: LinkedIn)rt will be chief of NRCS. The former president and CEO of the Almond Alliance of California, she was global director of government relations and external affairs for precision irrigation equipment manufacturer Netafim. Pat Swanson will be administrator of RMA. An American Soybean Association director, Swanson operates a crop insurance agency in Ottumwa, Iowa, and served on the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. board.
Andrew Fisher was named chief of staff for farm production and conservation. He was a legislative assistant for Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and previously held the same position in the office of Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
Colton Buckley was named chief of staff for NRCS. He was CEO of the National Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils and was on the Texas A&M University system's board of regents and the Texas Commissioner of Agriculture’s Advisory Council.
USDA named Jaye Hamby director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, replacing Manjit Misra. Hamby, a Tennessee native, grew up on his family’s cow-calf operation and was a National FFA officer.
Monument Advocacy hired Mark Bednar as a principal. He was communications director for then-Rep. Sean Duffy, now the transportation secretary, for two years. He also was strategic communications director for then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Off the Hill, Bednar was vice president of communications for the American Exploration & Production Council.
Colleen Merz joined Zoetis as head of pet ownership digital. She previously worked for Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Johnson & Johnson Vision and Royan Canin.
Ben Anderson left the office of Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn., where he was district director. He is now a regulatory affairs manager at Ralco based in Marshall, Minnesota. Anderson was previously administrator of the USDA Rural Business Cooperative Service.
Solar Energy Industries Association hired Rachel Skaar as communications director. She was previously deputy communications director for the Democratic staff on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Austin Bryniarski left Capitol Hill to be government relations coordinator at the National Family Farm Coalition. Bryniarski was previously legislative director for Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C.
Mike Graham was appointed head of research and development for Bayer’s Crop Science division. He has been with the company nearly 30 years, recently leading the plant breeding organization. Graham will be based in St. Louis, Missouri. He will succeed Robert Reiter, who will retire after 27 years with the company. The change will become effective April 15.
Mike Graham, Bayer (Photo: Bayer)Case New Holland appointed Cameron Batten chief communications officer. He joins CNH with more than 25 years of experience in communications. Batten was chief communications officer at Volkswagen Group of America, vice president of brand communications at Samsung Electronics America and vice president of card communications at Capital One.
Nels Ackerson, a lawyer, former National FFA president and chief counsel of the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, died March 18. He was 80. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress from Indiana in 2008. As agricultural adviser to the late Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., Ackerson proposed the first bill enacted into law to provide incentives for biofuel production, co-sponsored by Bayh and the late Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan. Purdue University, where he earned an agricultural economics degree before earning a law degree from Harvard University, awarded him an honorary Doctor of Agriculture. He retired to Florida and a senior living community in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Joan Dye Gussow, influential food policy critic and former chair of the nutrition department at Columbia University Teachers College, died at her home in Piermont, New York, from congestive heart failure March 7. She was 96. Gussow served on the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences, the FDA Food Advisory Committee and the USDA National Organic Standards Board. Her 1978 book, "The Feeding Web: Issues in Nutritional Ecology," tracked the environmental hazards of a globalizing food system. Gussow influenced a generation of followers, including Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle.
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