Kathleen Merrigan

Kathleen Ann Merrigan (born October 6, 1959) is an American politician who served as the United States deputy secretary of agriculture from April 8, 2009, until her resignation from this position on March 14, 2013. She was the first woman to chair the Ministerial Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 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 one of the "100 most influential people in the world" by Time magazine in 2010.