The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), created by the 2014 farm law, has hired Sally Rockey as its executive director. She begins work in September. Rockey currently is deputy director of extramural research for the National Institutes of Health, overseeing a research budget of $25 billion a year. An insect physiologist by training, Rockey spent nearly two decades in USDA research agencies before joining NIH is 2005. “This is an incredible opportunity for me to lead an organization through its early days and see FFAR develop as a vital component of the food and agriculture research enterprise,” said Rockey. Congress endowed FFAR with $200 million, which must be matched by non-federal funds for use in research.
In her Rock Talk blog at NIH, Rockey said, “It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to do something completely new.”