An Obion County and Tennessee native is headed back to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Kelsey Barnes has been appointed to serve as senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for rural development, biofuels, and research, education and economics.
Most recently, Barnes served as the director of government affairs at Farm Journal Foundation. She’s no stranger to USDA though, serving previously as a legislative analyst, advance lead and chief of staff for the Rural Business Cooperative Service under Secretary Sonny Perdue. As a soldier in the Army National Guard, she worked on Operation Atlantic Resolve in Bulgaria, Germany and Romania.
Her roots run deep in agriculture growing up on a corn, soybean and cattle farm in Union City, and Barnes gained an interest in agricultural policy after living in a rural community of northern Ghana for a year through AgriCorps.
