The Obama Administration has announced that Brad Pfaff will serve as Wisconsin State Executive Director for USDA’s Farm Service Agency and Stan Gruszynski will serve as Wisconsin State Director for Rural Development at USDA.

“Both Brad and Stan are excellent advocates for Wisconsin agriculture and understand our mission here at CALS,” says Ben Miller, CALS associate dean for external relations. “They will be great partners as we look towards the future.”

Since 1997, Pfaff has been a Policy Advisor to U.S. Representative Ron Kind. Prior to this he worked on Senator Herbert Kohl’s state staff performing constituent outreach. He also was a legislative staff member for Wisconsin State Representative Virgil Roberts.

Gruszynski is currently the director of Rural Leadership and Community Development for the Global Environmental Management Center at the UW-Stevens Point College of Natural Resources. Prior to that, he served as the Director of Public Affairs for USDA Rural Development in Stevens Point. From 1984-1994, he represented the 71st district in the Wisconsin State Assembly and served on both the rural affairs and natural resources committees.

The Farm Services Agency works to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life for rural Americans. Some of the agency’s efforts include providing direct operating loans for farm equipment, seed and fertilizer, as well as rural housing loans to help rural people buy, build or rent housing. FSA also procures various commodities to benefit low-income families through domestic food assistance programs. At the same time, the agency creates jobs by funding the growth and creation of rural businesses and cooperatives.

Rural Development administers and manages over 40 housing, business, and community infrastructure and facility programs as laid out by Congress through a network of 6,100 employees located in 500 national, state and local offices. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural America. Rural Development has an existing portfolio of over $114 billion in loans and loan guarantees.