Deputy Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Stacy Dean nominated for food safety undersecretary.

Jacqui Fatka, Policy editor

May 16, 2022

2 Min Read
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Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced late Friday that Stacy Dean has been nominated to serve as USDA undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services. Since the start of the Biden administration, Dean has served as the deputy in the department.

StacyDean.USDA_.jpg“Her commitment during her time at USDA and throughout her career proves she is exceptionally well suited to serve as undersecretary for FNCS,” Vilsack says. “Since taking on the role of deputy undersecretary, Stacy has sought to increase nutrition assistance for struggling Americans and tackle barriers that have been long engrained into assistance programs.”

Prior to joining USDA, she served as vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and directed CBPP’s food assistance team, where her team reported on the impacts of federal nutrition programs and developed policies to improve them. In addition to her work on federal nutrition programs, Dean directed CBPP efforts to integrate the delivery of health and human services programs at the state and local levels, according to a White House statement on her nomination.

Before her role with CBPP, she was a budget analyst with the Office of Management and Budget where she worked on policy development, regulatory and legislative review, and budgetary process and execution for a variety of income support programs.

“Stacy has an incredible depth of knowledge and experience in the field of food and nutrition, and I am thrilled at the prospect of her continuing to shape the nation's food and nutrition policy as the undersecretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services,” Vilsack adds.

“As Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services, Ms. Dean will work to ensure Americans and their families can put healthy food on the table,” says Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow. “It’s a critical role and one Ms. Dean is very qualified to serve in. I look forward to reviewing her nomination.”

Dean earned her B.A. and master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan.

About the Author(s)

Jacqui Fatka

Policy editor, Farm Futures

Jacqui Fatka grew up on a diversified livestock and grain farm in southwest Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications, with a minor in agriculture education, in 2003. She’s been writing for agricultural audiences ever since. In college, she interned with Wallaces Farmer and cultivated her love of ag policy during an internship with the Iowa Pork Producers Association, working in Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Capitol Hill press office. In 2003, she started full time for Farm Progress companies’ state and regional publications as the e-content editor, and became Farm Futures’ policy editor in 2004. A few years later, she began covering grain and biofuels markets for the weekly newspaper Feedstuffs. As the current policy editor for Farm Progress, she covers the ongoing developments in ag policy, trade, regulations and court rulings. Fatka also serves as the interim executive secretary-treasurer for the North American Agricultural Journalists. She lives on a small acreage in central Ohio with her husband and three children.

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