Experience as an 1890 4-H Extension Specialist Launches Jewel Bronaugh's Journey to USDA Deputy Secretary
It’s 1989 at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. A young woman named Jewel Bronaugh is studying to earn her bachelor’s degree in education so that she might follow in her parents’ footsteps and become an educator. Like many college students, the path she took to forge her career contained different turns than the one she envisioned for herself at the time.
After becoming a teacher, Bronaugh earned her master’s degree and then her doctorate in education from Virginia Tech before taking a position in 2001 at Virginia State University (VSU), in Petersburg, VA, where Dr. Bronaugh grew up. In a May 2020 interview with Future Farmers of America, Bronaugh said, “Taking the position in 4-H and youth development in VSU’s College of Agriculture changed the trajectory of my career; I was planning on building a career as a college professor.” Some of her outreach work in the community included program to address bullying in youth.
This introduction to Cooperative Extension opened many doors for Bronaugh. She gained critical experience that launched her into the position of Dean of the College of Agriculture at VSU, a position that she held for five years, overseeing academic departments, VSU’s Agricultural Research Station and the Virginia Cooperative Extension at VSU.
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary appointed Dr. Bronaugh as the Executive Director of the USDA Farm Service Agency in Virginia. In 2018, she made history serving as the first African-American woman Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Bronaugh’s impacts as the Commissioner focused on often-overlooked sectors of agriculture. She invested her energy in ensuring Virginians could lead healthier lives, starting with food production and a focus on the farmers and growers on whom we depend. She devised the Farmer Stress and Mental Health Taskforce to focus on mental health concerns among farmers. To address food insecurity, she created the Virginia Food Access and Investment Fund Grant Program, which provided more grocery stores and creative community programs. Her big-picture thinking reached people across the state, including future leaders in agriculture through the Career Development Scholarship Program that she created to provide opportunities to minority students to get involved in national agricultural policy development.
Today, Bronaugh’s impacts can be felt across the nation. She was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021 to serve as the Deputy Secretary of USDA, becoming the first African-American to fill this role. She oversees almost 30 USDA agencies with 100,000 staff across the U.S. and overseas.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack summarized Bronaugh’s critical impacts throughout her career at her confirmation. “Dr. Bronaugh inspired many first-generation college students from rural communities to become outstanding leaders in their fields. She speaks respectfully of producers and rural Americans, and believes that as a public servant, her job is to find a way to help those who need it.”
With her roots in Cooperative Extension and 1890 land-grant institutional leadership, Bronaugh has an ideal foundation to make widespread positive impacts within our country’s agricultural industry.
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