Secretary
Russell Redding
Russell Redding was unanimously confirmed by the Pennsylvania Senate to serve as Pennsylvania's 27th Secretary of Agriculture on May 10, 2023. Governor Josh Shapiro nominated Redding to continue serving as secretary, after he served from 2015 – 2022 under Governor Tom Wolf. He is the former dean of the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at Delaware Valley University.
Redding has extensive experience as a public servant, having spent more than 30 years serving Pennsylvania in Harrisburg and Washington D.C. He worked on Capitol Hill as Ag Policy Advisor to U.S. Senator Harris Wofford and served for nearly 25 years in the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, serving as secretary from 2009-2011 under Governor Ed Rendell, and from 2015-2022 under Governor Tom Wolf. He currently serves on the Agriculture subcommittee of the USDA’s Equity Commission.
He earned his B.S. in Agriculture Education and M.S. in Agriculture and Extension Education from Penn State University. In addition, he is a graduate of the Agribusiness Executive program. A native of Pennsylvania, Redding has an innate understanding of food and agriculture, stemming from his youth on his family’s dairy farm and his time as a dairy farm operator. He and his wife Nina have two adult sons and own and operate a farm in Gettysburg.
2023 Confirmation Testimony