Christopher Lyon
State Director of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island
Christopher Lyon was born in Boston and raised in a small Plymouth County town without sidewalks and only one lonely traffic light. What Lyon’s hometown lacked in more suburban “amenities,” it more than made up for in cranberry bogs. In fact, Lyon’s hometown, Hanson, was the original headquarters of Ocean Spray Cranberries, a vital part of Southeastern Massachusetts’ important cranberry industry. Lyon’s father, a descendant of three Mayflower pilgrims (Allerton, Rogers and Cooke), worked for Ocean Spray for 25 years. As a young boy, Lyon vividly remembers running through the old factory on weekends when his father was called into work. He has never forgotten the sweet and tart smell of the crushed cranberries on the factory floor.
Lyon’s work in politics and government is extensive, starting at a very young age. As an undergraduate at Boston College, his local state representative knew of Lyon’s keen interest in government and politics. Since this representative (a Republican) played poker with the House Speaker (a Democrat), Lyon was able to secure a three-year position as a page in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
In his professional life, not only has Lyon lived all over the country but all over Massachusetts, as well. Lyon has lived in Northampton (President Calvin Coolidge’s hometown), Western Massachusetts, Chestnut Hill, and Boston during his college years, and, of course, in Plymouth County.
As chief of staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region 2 during the first Trump term, Lyon’s primary focus was implementing the administration’s environmental policy agenda. Now, as State Director for Southern New England (Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island) in USDA’s Rural Development program, Lyon is rededicated to the America First agenda that will revitalize the area’s abundant and too often overlooked beautiful and unique small communities.
Lyon was educated at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, Boston College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.