Deputy Secretary for Strategic Initiatives and Market Development
Cheryl Cook
Secretary
Redding appointed Cheryl Cook as Deputy Secretary in
January 2017, following nearly two years as the Agency’s Chief Innovation
Officer. As a Deputy Secretary, Cook
oversees the Bureaus of Farmland Preservation, Food Distribution, LEAN, and Market Development.
Cook
previously served from April 2003 – March 2009 as PDA’s Deputy Secretary for
Marketing and Economic Development. Between
State appointments, she served in the Obama Administration as Deputy Under
Secretary for Rural Development and then as USDA’s Chief Information Officer. Cook also served in the Clinton
Administration as Pennsylvania State Director for USDA’s Rural Development
programs.
A
lawyer by training, Cook’s career has included a range of service to production
agriculture and rural communities, from cooperative development as Executive
Director of the Keystone Development Center to Assistant Director of the
National Farmers Union’s legislative staff in Washington, DC and Assistant to
the President of NFU’s Pennsylvania chapter.
Cook
received a 2017 Meritorious Service to Agriculture Award from National Farmers
Union for outstanding leadership and service to family agriculture and to Farmers
Union. She also was named by Federal Computer Week magazine as one of
the “Federal 100” in 2015, an annual award recognizing government and industry
leaders who have played pivotal roles in the federal government IT community.
Cook earned her Juris Doctorate from the Dickinson
School of Law in 1984, and has been a member of the Pennsylvania bar since
November of that year. She earned her
Bachelor’s degree from Lebanon Valley College in 1981.