Harford County’s Lucie Snodgrass Appointed Maryland State Executive Director of Farm Service Agency

From the USDA Farm Service Agency:

USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Juan M. Garcia announced today the appointment of Lucie Lehmann Snodgrass to Maryland State Executive Director for FSA.

“FSA is excited to welcome Lucie to our leadership team representing the state of Maryland. She brings extraordinary experience to FSA, including 17 years as co-owner of Emory Knoll Farms, a 150 acre, fifth generation farming operation in northeastern Maryland.

Through enrollment in FSA’s Conservation Reserve Program on the farm run by Lucie and her husband, Edmund, the couple was recognized as both Preservation and Conservation Farmers of the Year by Harford County in 2005 and 2010, respectively.

Lucie Lehmann Snodgrass has been a top advisor to U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, and as State Director worked closely with Maryland officials on federal funding for agriculture projects and programs, including federal disaster assistance.

Prior to her work with Senator Mikulski, Snodgrass was Director of Governmental and Community Relations for Harford County, MD., where she successfully collaborated with the farm community on legislation to expand on-farm permitted uses. Snodgrass was also a public policy consultant assisting nonprofit and government agencies. Among her clients was the Future Harvest-Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture (CASA), a membership-based coalition for sustainable farming. She co-chaired Maryland’s Agriculture Transition Team following the 2006 gubernatorial election of Martin O’Malley and directed the team that developed agriculture policy recommendations for Governor O’Malley’s first term. She was also on the committee that started Maryland’s Farm To School Program, now in its fifth year.

A writer and journalist by training, Snodgrass published Dishing Up Maryland (Storey, 2010) and was co-author of Green Roof Plants: A Resource and Planting Guide (Timber Press, 2006). She has written magazine and newspaper articles, including contributions toThe Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore magazine, The Mid-American Review, and Fine Gardening magazine. She earned her M.A. in Writing from The Johns Hopkins University; an M.P.A. from The John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; and a B.A. in Political Science from Vassar College.

Snodgrass took office as Maryland’s FSA State Executive Director starting August 20.