Kathleen Merrigan is Executive Director of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University and the Kelly and Brian Swette Professor of Sustainable Food Systems. Concurrently, she is Venture Partner at Astanor, a Belgium-based venture capital investing in agtech solutions. Merrigan came to ASU after four years as a Professor and Executive Director of Sustainability at George Washington University.

From 2009-2013, Merrigan served as U.S. Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.