Marion County resident Matt Russell has been appointed by President Biden as the Executive Director of the Iowa Farm Service Agency. Russell owns a farm outside of Lacona in Marion County and most recently served as the Executive Director for Iowa Interfaith Power and Light, and previously worked at Drake University’s Agricultural Law Center, the Iowa Citizen Action Network, the National Catholic Rural Life Conference and Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Nevada.

He has a master’s degree in Rural Sociology from Iowa State University and a bachelor’s degree from Loras College. Russell’s work on agriculture and climate change has been featured in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Des Moines Register, CNN, NBC, CBS, among many other national and international media outlets, and testified before congress on issues regarding agriculture and climate change.

Former Iowa Senate and Congressional candidate Theresa Greenfield has been named as the Iowa Rural Development State Director.