Our people
Xochitl Torres Small
Board Director
As Chief Operating Officer for a department with over 100,000 civil servants, Torres Small reenvisioned agency permitting processes and designed and implemented USDA's first drought program financed through the Commodity Credit Corporation. Prioritizing staff morale and interdepartmental efficiency, Torres Small successfully relocated USDA’s National Finance Center, which had been housed in FEMA trailers in New Orleans for 17 years. She established USDA’s Artificial Intelligence Governance Board and the AI Lab, providing continuity in investment through the General Services Administration’s Technology Modernization Fund. Recognizing the importance of international collaboration for global health and agriculture production, Torres Small represented the United States in the 2023 and 2024 G-20 Agricultural Ministerial in India and Brazil and hosted the inaugural USDA trade mission to Luanda, Angola in 2024.
Prior to serving as Deputy Secretary, Torres Small was Under Secretary for Rural Development. In this role, she oversaw an annual $40 billion in loans and grants to provide infrastructure improvements, business development and affordable housing in rural and tribal areas. Investments included the $2 billion ReConnect program for high-speed internet and the $9.7 billion New ERA program for affordable, clean energy investments in rural electric cooperatives. Through the creation of the Rural Partners Network, Torres Small provided unprecedented access and community support for locally led initiatives which ultimately leveraged over $1.6 billion invested in 36 partner communities.
She is from Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she worked as an attorney practicing water and natural resources law and became a United States Representative for New Mexico’s Second Congressional district in 2019. As the youngest person, first woman and first person of color to represent the district, Torres Small authored and passed into law measures on border security and border trade, water conservation, and a measure to make White Sands a National Park. She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of New Mexico, her Bachelor in the Science of Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and her International Baccalaureate from Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa.
