For Immediate Release
(Santa Fe, NM – July 28, 2025) After an extensive search, we are incredibly excited to announce that Xochitl Torres Small will be Quivira Coalition’s next executive director; she will start August 18, 2025.
The search committee, with support from Clover Search Works, received more than 90 applications from candidates across the country. Over the past four months, the committee conducted a rigorous and thorough process of reviewing these applications and holding multiple stages of interviews with numerous well-qualified candidates.
Torres Small brings high-level government experience, most recently serving as USDA Deputy Secretary from 2023-2025, where she functioned as Chief Operating Officer overseeing operations for over 100,000 civil servants and directly managing 11 senior executives. Previously, she served as Under Secretary for Rural Development (2021-2023), delivering over $40 billion annually for rural housing, water and wastewater, value added agriculture, high speed internet, and economic development. She also represented New Mexico’s Second Congressional District in the U.S. Congress (2019-2020), where she served on the House Agriculture Committee. She holds a J.D. summa cum laude from University of New Mexico School of Law and a bachelor’s in foreign service cum laude from Georgetown University, with professional experience in water and environmental law.
“It’s a joy to be back home, working on practical tools that bring people together to solve shared challenges. I couldn’t be prouder to join Quivira Coalition’s stellar team and committed members. Together, we’ll continue to forge connections across differences to steward the land we love and depend on,” said Torres Small.
The search committee was impressed with Torres Small’s ability to build trust across diverse groups, her personal and professional dedication to New Mexico and the West, and her proven leadership in complex organizations.
“We’re excited to welcome Xochitl to the team. Xochitl’s experience serving rural people and solving agricultural challenges at the USDA, her enthusiasm, and her ties to Western communities will deepen Quivira’s work at the Radical Center,” said Owen Cortner, the chair of the board of directors and member of the search committee.
Since the beginning of 2025, Leah Ricci, our current New Agrarian Program director, has been the interim executive director. Quivira’s staff and board are incredibly grateful for Leah’s leadership and care during this time.
About Quivira Coalition
Through education, innovation, and collaboration, Quivira Coalition works in coalition with ranchers, farmers, government agencies, and land stewards to foster resilience on working lands. We envision a world where agriculture provides for the health of rural economies and communities, heals social injustice, and regenerates climate, land, water, and ecosystems. We work to support the community and implementation of regenerative agriculture until it is embraced as a crucial piece of our food systems, our land stewardship, and our solutions to climate change. Quivira’s work, at its foundation, advances the current shift from extractive to regenerative culture and economy.