Kathleen Ann Merrigan (born October 6, 1959)[1] is an American politician who served as the United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture from April 8, 2009,[2] until her resignation from this position on March 14, 2013.

[6] She worked at Tufts University as Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.

She assisted in writing the 1990 Organic Foods Production Act while a professional staff member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

Merrigan helped develop USDA's organic labeling rules while head of the Agricultural Marketing Service from 1999 to 2001.

Merrigan serves on a number of boards and committees including: AGree, the Harvard Pilgrim Healthy Food Fund Advisory Committee, Board Director for the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and FoodCorps, Senior Advisor at the Kendall Foundation, the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors of the National Council for Science and the Environment and the United Nations Environment Programme led initiative TEEB for Agriculture & Food.