Michelle A.T. Hughes

Michelle is from New Haven, Connecticut, and was a hog farmer at the University of Pennsylvania. As Executive Director of the National Young Farmers Coalition, she provides strategic direction and oversight to advance the organization’s mission: shift power and change policy for the new generation of working farmers. From 2022-2025, Michelle served on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Equity Commission, where she co-authored a landmark report offering 66 recommendations to address USDA’s legacy of discrimination. She brings a collaborative, movement-oriented approach to her work, centering farmer voices, frontline communities, and the belief that lasting change requires both grassroots leadership and institutional transformation. Michelle is a graduate of Haverford College and earned her M.A. in Food Studies from New York University. She is dedicated to advancing equity in agriculture by bridging the lived experiences of farmers with systems-level policy reform.