Shawna Newsome
Vice President, Food Policy

Shawna Newsome serves as CRA’s Vice President of Food Policy. In her position, she leads two of CRA’s member committees, overseeing and executing legislative and regulatory priorities for food, nutrition and agriculture policy, as well as product safety and quality. Shawna leverages years of expertise in food and agriculture policy to deliver science-based solutions for CRA’s members in the legislative and regulatory arena. She also represents the organization in critical coalitions.

Shawna comes to CRA from analytics firm SAS, where she was an industry consultant for food safety. She also spent time in senior food and agriculture roles at the Department of Agriculture and on staff in the U.S. Senate after beginning her career in Washington on the staff of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Shawna holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida in food and resource economics and a master’s degree from Texas Tech University in agricultural communications.