Dr. Katharine R. “Kitty” Smith served as the administrator of the Economic Research Service. Smith received a Bachelors of Science with an emphasis in biological sciences from the University of Maryland, where she also received a master’s and a PhD in agricultural and resource economics. 

 

From 1989 to 1991, Smith was a senior fellow with the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy at Resources for the Future, and from 1993 to 1996, she was Policy Studies Program Director for the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture. Smith was elected to serve on the American Agricultural Economics Association’s governing board of directors from 1990-1992. In her 25 years of service at the ERS, Smith has also held positions as Director of the Market and Trade Economics Division and Director of the Resource Economics Division.

 

Smith’s work has been published in several books, journals, USDA reports and popular outlets.