Ag Career Profile - Chelsea Smither, Project Manager, Kentucky Office of Agricultural Policy

“Keep an open mind because there are more agriculture careers available to you than you might think. For example, most people immediately think “Ag Teacher” when they hear Agricultural Education degree, but here I am working as a Project Manager. I may not be teaching in the formal classroom setting, but I still educate people about our office and the agriculture industry.”

Chelsea Smither is a Project Manager at the Kentucky Office of Agricultural Policy and has been with them since May 2022. Prior to that, Chelsea attended the University of Kentucky and majored in Agricultural Education.

Chelsea has been involved in agriculture since she was a child helping out on her grandparent’s farm. She later became heavily involved with her local FFA chapter, which solidified her choice to pursue agriculture as a career.

Chelsea’s duties as a Project Manager at the Kentucky Office of Agricultural Policy are to mainly facilitate information between applicants and the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board. Specifically, she aids applicants throughout the application process from start to finish and presents their applications to the committee and board members.

Besides handling active applications, Chelsea also monitors and dispurses funds for approved projects, conducts site visits throughout the state, and attends county council meetings, among other things. She says her favorite aspect of the job is s traveling the state for site visits and county council meetings, as she gets to meet with producers directly and experience how agriculture differs across Kentucky.

“What would you have done differently if you knew you would have ended up in this career?”

“If I knew I would have ended up in this career following graduation, I would have tried to find more opportunities to work or intern in a similar field. There is not much else that I would change, though. I feel that my Agricultural Education degree gave me enough knowledge from all aspects of the agriculture industry to properly educate potential applicants and assist current ones.”