Dr. Ron Rainey, assistant vice president of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, was appointed to the USDA’s newly established Equity Commission, which aims to help USDA evaluate its programs and services for the purposes of making policy recommendations that ensure greater equity and inclusion for underserved persons and communities in agriculture and rural America.
Rainey is one of two Arkansans to be named to the panel. Hazell Reed, retired vice chancellor for research and economic development from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, was also named to the commission. Reed is also executive director of the National Black Growers Council.
The 15-member commission and its subcommittee on agriculture were authorized under the American Rescue Plan Act. The commission holds its first public meeting Feb. 28, with an orientation for members set for next week.
The commission members are:
- Arturo S. Rodriguez, California
- Hazell Reed, Arkansas
- Toni Stanger-McLaughlin, Washington
- Derrick Johnson, Mississippi
- Ron Rainey, Arkansas
- Mireya Loza, District of Columbia
- Charles Rawls, Virginia
- Shorlette Ammons, North Carolina
- Poppy Sias-Hernandez, Michigan
- Todd Corley, Ohio
- Yvonne Lee, California
- Elizabeth Lower-Basch, Virginia
- Shirley Sherrod, Georgia
- Ertharin Cousin, Illinois
- Rick Smith, Missouri
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