Mary Kay Thatcher

MARY KAY THATCHER

Mary Kay Thatcher serves as a Senior Advisor at HillStaffer, bringing more than four decades of experience shaping U.S. agricultural policy and legislation. A fifth-generation farmer raised on a 500-acre Iowa farm, Mary Kay brings a rare combination of on-the-ground agricultural knowledge and deep Washington policy expertise to help HillStaffer clients navigate farm programs, crop insurance, conservation, trade, and credit issues. Her work spans nine Farm Bills, giving her an institutional memory and set of relationships that few in the agricultural policy space can match.

Mary Kay began her career as Agricultural Legislative Assistant to Iowa Senator Roger Jepsen, where she helped draft the 1981 Farm Bill and championed early conservation provisions. She went on to serve as a political appointee in the first Bush Administration, directing Congressional and Public Affairs for the Farm Credit Administration, where she reaffirmed the agency’s independence and helped create the Office of Secondary Market Oversight for Farmer Mac.

For 31 years, Mary Kay served as a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, ultimately rising to Senior Director of Congressional Relations, where she led strategic advocacy on farm safety nets, conservation, and rural development programs. She played a key role in passing the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987 in response to the 1980s farm credit crisis, and spearheaded three legislative initiatives that strengthened the federal crop insurance program into a more effective public-private partnership. She also represented AFBF on a USDA Trade Advisory Committee and at World Trade Organization negotiations advancing U.S. agricultural export interests.

Recognizing early data privacy concerns facing farmers, Mary Kay founded and chaired the Ag Data Transparency initiative, a coalition of agricultural and commodity groups, and later served as President of the Ag Data Transparency Evaluator and Secretary of the Ag Data Coalition. She spent seven years as Senior Manager of Federal Government and Industry Relations for Syngenta, where she served on its 12-person Seeds Executive Leadership Team and expanded the company’s political action committee engagement by over 300 percent.

Mary Kay serves on Board of Advisors for Stratovation Group, an agricultural research, strategy, and marketing consultancy, and remains a sought-after speaker at institutions including Purdue University’s College of Agriculture. A working farmer to this day, Mary Kay helps operate her family’s Iowa farm, which produces corn, soybeans, and cattle.