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Mary Ellen Smith
USDA - Foreign Agricultural Service Deputy Administrator

Mary Ellen Smith is currently the Deputy Administrator of Foreign Affairs for the Foreign Agricultural Service. She returned to Washington, D.C., in October 2018 to work on Multilateral Affairs and later became the Managing Director of Foreign Affairs. Mary Ellen’s last Washington, D.C., assignment was as a Director at the Office of the United States Trade Representative. There she covered Europe and Asia including work on European Union enlargement, Vietnam’s World Trade Organization accession, and the United States Free Trade Agreement with Korea. Prior to serving in Washington, D.C., she served three consecutive tours including Moscow, The Hague, and most recently, Brussels. In these roles, she led market promotion activities and trade policy initiatives in the European Union, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, and Russia.

Mary Ellen is a fifth generation Californian with a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of California, Davis, and master’s degree in Business Administration.