Caren Wilcox is a government and business executive in the food and agriculture arena. Currently, she is interested in introducing industrial hemp into the sustainable agriculture and processing environment of the U.S. From 1997 to 2001, she served as the first Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety at the USDA, and she currently continues that work by serving as an advisor to the Center for Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention at the Ohio State University. During the Obama administration, she served as a senior advisor to the Under Secretary at the USDA’s Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area. She is a former director of the Organic Trade Association and also served as Director of Government Relations for Hershey Foods Corporation. She holds a B.A. in History from Wellesley College and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. Wilcox was raised in Pennsylvania by a family from Idaho and Pennsylvania and currently lives in Washington, DC.