AGRICULTURE SECRETARY ANN VENEMAN

55 years old.

Born: June 29, 1949.

EDUCATION

Bachelor's degree in political science, University of California, Davis.

Master's degree in public policy from University of California, Berkeley.

Law degree from Hastings College of Law, San Francisco, 1976.

EXPERIENCE

Agriculture Secretary, 2001-current. (27th agriculture secretary and first woman agriculture secretary).

Attorney with Nossaman, Guthner, Knox and Elliott, Sacramento, Calif., 1999-2000.

Secretary of California Department of Food and Agriculture, 1995-1999.

Attorney with Patton, Boggs & Blow, Washington, D.C., 1993-1995.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1986-1993, eventually becoming deputy secretary, the agency's Number Two official.

Attorney, Bay Area Rapid Transit District; Public defender, Stanislaus County, Calif.

POSSIBLE REPLACEMENT

Chuck Conner, White House farm adviser.

Democratic Representative Charles Stenholm of Texas, who lost his seat in the November second elections.

Allen Johnson, the chief U.S. negotiator on agricultural issues and Bill Hawks, undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs.

Charles Kruse, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation.

QUOTE

"I don't think we have a significant issue in this country," she said in February following the discovery last year that a cow in Washington state had mad cow disease. "But we are going to take it seriously."

PERSONAL

Grew up on family's peach farm in California.

FAMILY

Divorced, with no children.

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Background: Powell | Abraham | Veneman | Paige

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