Mary McNeil,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack appointed Mary McNeil as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. Most recently, McNeil served as the Transition Advisor to the National Congress of American Indians and on the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition. McNeil worked for the Potlatch Fund as Director of Grants and Programs in Washington state and provided consulting services to tribal and other organizations.

During the Clinton Administration, McNeil served as an appointee as USDA’s Director of Native American Programs and as a Search Manager in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. McNeil worked as a Staff Assistant to Senator Brock Adams (D-WA), as the Assistant to the President for the Sealaska Heritage Foundation, an Alaska Native nonprofit charitable foundation, and as a Planner for the State of Alaska.

McNeil holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Stanford University and a law degree from Stanford Law School. She is an enrolled member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.