Colleen Landkamer

Colleen Landkamer was appointed in 2022 by President Biden to serve a second term as the Minnesota State Director for USDA Rural Development. She was first appointed by President Obama to serve as USDA Rural Development State Director for Minnesota in 2009 and continued this service for eight years through the end of the Obama Administration. Landkamer has an enormous passion and energy for rural communities. Under her leadership and appointments, USDA has invested more than $10 billion in Minnesota’s rural communities.

Landkamer began her career in public service as a Congressional aide for Minnesota Congressman Tim Penny. She then went on to be elected to the Blue Earth County Board of Commissioners. She served Blue Earth County as a Commissioner for 21 years before her first appointment with Rural Development, then was re-elected to the County board in 2019 until her second appointment as State Director with USDA. Her dedication to rural Minnesota has no boundaries, from her involvement as a County Commissioner at the local, state and federal level on Intergovernmental Relations to her forming the National Association of Counties Rural Action Caucus (RAC) in 1998.  Landkamer’s enthusiasm for RAC helped take it from an organization of 20 members to several hundred. Landkamer served as NACo President in 2006 and 2007 representing all 3,069 counties across the nation.