URBANA, Ill. – In her return to the University of Illinois, Sally Thompson is serving as the new interim head of the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE). She started in the position on Jan. 16, 2022.

Thompson began her career in ACE and served as a full professor before leaving Illinois in 2002 to become head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. She has also worked as a senior executive at the USDA’s Economic Research Service in Washington, D.C., and she led the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis as the deputy director until 2018.

“Sally is an outstanding communicator with an inclusive approach to building consensus and executing strategy, and she has the demeanor and experience to lead ACE well,” says Germán Bollero, interim dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.