Lillian Salerno (born 1961) is an American attorney and entrepreneur who serves as USDA Rural Development State Director in Texas from 2022. She served as the Deputy Under Secretary of Rural Development of the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

from 2015 to 2017. She is the Principal of Armadilla Strategies and previously served as the Executive Director and Senior Policy Advisor at Safe Healthcare International Institute, as Executive Director of the International Association of Safe Injection Technologies, and as Principal and Chief Operating Officer of Retractable Technologies, Inc.

Early life and education

Salerno was born at the Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, one of nine children in her family, and raised in the farming community of

Little Elm, Texas Little Elm is a city in Denton County, Texas, United States, and a part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is an extended suburb of Denton; its population was 46,453 as of the 2020 census. In 2000, the census population was at 3,646. By the ...

. She attended Little Elm High School and was both student council president and head cheerleader. Her graduating class had eighteen people in it. Salerno attended the University of Texas on a Pell grant for undergraduate studies, the University of North Texas for graduate school, and then Southern Methodist University for law school.

Career

Salerno has held positions in government, non-governmental advocacy organizations, as well as the private sector.

2015–2017

In 2015, the White House appointed Salerno to serve as an administrator in the Department of Agriculture.

2017–2022

In March 2017, Salerno was under consideration to become a commissioner of the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

. A member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

, Salerno ran for

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

from in 2018, but lost the Democratic primary to

Colin Allred Colin Zachary Allred (born April 15, 1983) is an American politician, lawyer, and former professional football player. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the U.S. representative from . The district includes the northeastern corner of Dallas, ...

. Salerno started a podcast, Pod Bless Texas, in 2018. Salerno's tenure with the USDA, specifically how her department ran what was essentially a bank with $220 billion in assets inside the USDA, was profiled in ''

The Fifth Risk ''The Fifth Risk'' is a 2018 non-fiction book by Michael Lewis that examines the Presidential transition of Donald Trump, transition and Political appointments by Donald Trump, political appointments of the Donald Trump presidency, especially wit ...

'', Michael Lewis's 2018 book about the transition and political appointments of the

Donald Trump presidency Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...

2022-present

On June 23, 2022, the White House announced that Salerno has been appointed as Texas state director for the USDA's Rural Development.

References

United States Department of Agriculture officials 1961 births Texas lawyers Living people Baylor University alumni People from Little Elm, Texas University of Texas alumni University of North Texas alumni Southern Methodist University alumni Candidates in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections {{Texas-politician-stub