Sep 15, 2017

Specialty Crops Program to be led by Jimenez

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue recently announced organizational changes in USDA, several of which impacted USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).

Sonia Jimenez will be the new deputy administrator for the Specialty Crops Program beginning on Sept. 17. Jimenez began her USDA career over 25 years ago as a marketing specialist with AMS, supporting the agency’s Marketing Order and Research and Promotion Divisions.  

She then moved to the Foreign Agricultural Service, where she worked for eight years. She returned to AMS in 2006 as the director of the Promotion and Economics Division, and in 2013 she served as the agency’s acting deputy associate administrator.

Jimenez spent the last three years as deputy administrator for the AMS Management and Analysis Program. Melissa Bailey and Christopher Purdy will continue as associate deputy administrators.

Jimenez holds a Master of Business Administration from the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Puerto Rico.