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Matthew Lohr serves as the 16th Chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). As Chief, Matt provides leadership for NRCS and its mission to support America’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners in their voluntary conservation efforts through a network of more than 3,000 service centers in communities nationwide.

Matt was raised on a century family farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The fifth-generation farmer has spent his life working for the betterment of agriculture and stewardship on working lands.

Matt served as Virginia’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services from 2010 to 2013 and in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2006 to 2010. He has also worked as the Knowledge Center Director for Farm Credit of the Virginias as well as managed his own motivational speaking business, Lohr Leadership. Since 2017, he has farmed full-time on his family’s operation, which includes poultry, beef cattle, row crops and sweet corn.

Matt proudly served as both Virginia state FFA president and national FFA vice president before graduating from Virginia Tech in 1995. He and his wife Beth have six children.