After receiving his Ph.D. in 1972, Deaton accepted a position at the University of Tennessee, where he taught agricultural economics and rural sociology.

During his tenure at Tennessee, he briefly left to serve as staff director of the Special Task Force on Food for Peace at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.

In 1978, Deaton accepted a full professorship at Virginia Tech in the Department of Agricultural Economics, where he also served as coordinator of the rural development research and extension program.

His research has taken him to over a dozen countries and he has advised governors, universities, major corporations and diplomats on various topics related to agriculture, global trade and higher education.

He recently served on the board of trustees of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, a non-profit financial education organization.

[6] In 2011, with an appointment from President Barack Obama, Deaton succeeded Robert Easter as chairman of the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD).