Meet a Champion for Women in Agriculture

November 18th, 2016

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Category: Miscellaneous

woman-looking-through-field-50x299(AgWeb) – Alexis Taylor is a champion for women in agriculture. In her role as Deputy Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, Taylor oversees three of USDA’s 17 agencies—Farm Service Agency, Risk Management Agency and Foreign Agricultural Service. Through this work, her goal is to keep America’s farmers and ranchers in business as they face the uncertainties of weather and markets.

In addition, she leads the agency’s Women in Ag Initiative.

“Women in Ag is about connecting women from diverse agricultural backgrounds to nurture the next generation of leaders,” she explains. “There’s a lot of opportunity in agriculture, and it’s not just farming and ranching. It’s accounting, business, journalism and more. There are so many exciting ways to get involved, so many career opportunities within agriculture—it’s taken me all over the world.”

Taylor will kick off the 2016 Executive Women in Agriculture conference, which will be held Nov. 30-Dec. 2 in Chicago.

As an Iowa farm girl, Taylor says she is honored to present to attendees from across the country. “I’m excited to network myself with other women leaders in agriculture,” she says.

Prior to assuming her current role, Taylor served as chief of staff for FFAS, where she worked to implement provisions of the 2014 Farm Bill. Before joining USDA, she served as the legislative adviser to Congressman Leonard Boswell of Iowa and Senator Max Baucus of Montana. During her time in Congress, Taylor negotiated key provisions of the 2008 Farm Bill, as well as the Senate version of the 2012 Farm Bill which ultimately became law as the 2014 Farm Bill.

Taylor served in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1998 to 2006. During her time in the Reserves, she did one tour in Iraq with the 389th Combat Engineer Battalion. She is a graduate of Iowa State University and grew up on her family farm in Iowa, which has been in her family for 157 years.

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