Applauding Appointments: Two Dear Colleagues Join the New Administration
While many more appointments need to be made and these appointments have yet to be officially announced, we couldn't wait to offer our congratulations to two very dear colleagues.
Kumar Chandran has been named Senior Adviser in the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Kumar began his professional career at Nourish California in 2007. His name should be familiar to many in California as he sent timely alerts to the inboxes of advocates throughout the state for many years. Kumar had an expansive portfolio with our organization as he worked on child care nutrition and school meals as well as CalFresh. Notably, Kumar was a crucial part of the team that passed legislation to increase access to water in schools. After working at Nourish California, he went on to work at Share our Strength and Food Corps. With this appointment, Kumar returns to USDA where he was Chief of Staff for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services. We look forward to working with Kumar in his new role. Congratulations, Kumar!
Stacy Dean has been tapped to be deputy undersecretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services. Since 2000 Stacy has been a close adviser and ally to the Nourish California team. During her time with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities she has played a critical role in helping us remove barriers to CalFresh, notably excessive paperwork and finger imaging. She was a frequent and popular presenter at our annual CalFresh Forum. The support and expertise she provided us over the years extended well beyond CalFresh. She played a key role for us in getting needed federal authority to expand direct certification in school meals to Medi-Cal. We are very excited to work with Stacy in her new role. Congratulations, Stacy!
