Editor's Roundup
USDA people in the news

Patricia Garamendi was named as the deputy administrator for international cooperation and development in the Foreign Agricultural Service. She succeeded Mary Ann Keeffe, who held that position from November 1997 until she retired in May 2000, following 23 years of federal service.

From November 1998 until her appointment in May 2000, Garamendi served as the assistant deputy administrator for farm programs in the Farm Service Agency. In addition, since September 1999 she served as director of the USDA Millennium Council as well as director of Millennium Green, a project of the White House Millennium Council focusing on efforts to celebrate the millennium.

Garamendi was associate director of the U.S. Peace Corps from 1993-98, where she was responsible for the nationwide operations of recruitment, selection, and placement of approximately 24,000 volunteers, during that five-year span, in 91 countries worldwide. During her tenure the number of volunteers reached a 21-year high, with the highest level of diversity in Peace Corps history. Earlier, she had served as a Peace Corps volunteer in southwestern Ethiopia from 1966-68, where she worked in community development. She subsequently returned to Ethiopia in 1985 to organize famine camps. For 20 years, during the 1970s and 1980s, she managed her family’s ranch and farm operations near Sacramento, Calif.

A native of northern California, Garamendi holds a B.A. degree in liberal arts from the University of California at Berkeley and a Juris Doctor degree from the Humphreys College School of Law in Stockton, Calif.