United States Department of Agriculture

Hello! I am Vince Matthews. I assumed leadership of the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service Idaho field office in April 2009, after serving 11 years as deputy director of the NASS Michigan field office in East Lansing, Michigan. I have an appreciation of the great diversity in agriculture and a strong commitment to serve producers in Idaho.

Prior to the Michigan assignment, I led the NASS headquarters section responsible for estimating and publishing U.S. data for fruits, vegetables, and specialty crops, including potatoes and dry beans. I began my NASS career in 1984, working in a number of positions in the Washington, D.C., area. I served as NASS liaison to the U.S. Census Bureau from 1991 to 1996. During that time, the Bureau conducted its last Census of Agriculture in 1992 and NASS prepared to conduct its first census in 1997. From 1989 to 1991, I was deputy director of the NASS Maryland field office. I also worked on quality control aspects of the agency's area sampling frame and researched improvements in the objective yield surveys for grain sorghum and wheat.

I was born and raised in Medford, Oregon. My introduction to agriculture was working for a gladiola bulb grower following high school. I graduated from the University of California – Davis with a degree in plant science and worked summers for a farmer who grew wheat, sugarbeets, vegetable seeds, and dry beans. I completed my master's and Ph.D. degrees in agronomy and plant breeding at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, working on projects related to cold tolerance in grain sorghum.