Deputy Secretary for Strategic Initiatives and Market Development

Cheryl Cook

Secretary Redding appointed Cheryl Cook as Deputy Secretary in January 2017, following nearly two years as the Agency’s Chief Innovation Officer. As a Deputy Secretary, Cook oversees the Bureaus of Farmland Preservation, Food Distribution, LEAN, and Market Development.

Cook previously served from April 2003 – March 2009 as PDA’s Deputy Secretary for Marketing and Economic Development. Between State appointments, she served in the Obama Administration as Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development and then as USDA’s Chief Information Officer. Cook also served in the Clinton Administration as Pennsylvania State Director for USDA’s Rural Development programs. 

A lawyer by training, Cook’s career has included a range of service to production agriculture and rural communities, from cooperative development as Executive Director of the Keystone Development Center to Assistant Director of the National Farmers Union’s legislative staff in Washington, DC and Assistant to the President of NFU’s Pennsylvania chapter. 

Cook received a 2017 Meritorious Service to Agriculture Award from National Farmers Union for outstanding leadership and service to family agriculture and to Farmers Union. She also was named by Federal Computer Week magazine as one of the “Federal 100” in 2015, an annual award recognizing government and industry leaders who have played pivotal roles in the federal government IT community.

Cook earned her Juris Doctorate from the Dickinson School of Law in 1984, and has been a member of the Pennsylvania bar since November of that year. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Lebanon Valley College in 1981.