Western Growers Names Head of D.C. Office

Western Growers Association has selected Cathleen Enright to head the organization’s new Washington, D.C., office. Western Growers opened its Washington, D.C., office on April 30. Enright will start her new position as vice president, federal government affairs on Sept. 4.

Enright has served as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative, representing American agriculture industry interests as a trade negotiator. She also previously worked for USDA and the U.S. State Department.

In her role as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative, Enright negotiated several bilateral and multi-lateral agreements with U.S. trading partners that restored market access, or opened access for the first time, to U.S. agricultural commodities. Among these include agreements with South Korea for California citrus, India for California almonds and Canada for northwest U.S. potatoes.

Previously, Enright served from 2000 to 2006 as Assistant Deputy Administrator with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where she negotiated resolution of more than 30 phytosanitary trade barriers affecting U.S. agricultural commodities and served as department and agency liaison with U.S. industries, other federal government agencies, state departments of agriculture and Congress.

From 1995-2000, Enright served as a policy analyst with the U.S. State Department, where she coordinated interagency and international coalition efforts for negotiation of international treaty in trade in products of biotechnology and served as department advisor and technical expert for biotechnology-related issues.

She earned a doctorate in biochemistry from State University of New
York and completed her post-doctoral training at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Western Growers represents nearly 3,000 members who grow, pack and ship 90 percent of the fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in California and 75 percent of those commodities in Arizona. This totals about half the nation’s produce.