Expertise in Lending in Native Communities Representative
Founding Chief Executive Officer
Native Agriculture Financial Service
Fayetteville, AR
Janie Simms Hipp, J.D, LL.M. currently serves as the founding CEO of the Native Agriculture Financial Service (NAFS), a nonprofit Other Financing Institution within the Farm Credit system of lending institutions. NAFS focuses on meeting the capital access needs of Native farmers, ranchers, fishers, and forest land operators and their rural communities.
Prior to leading NAFS, she served as the General Counsel of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). She was only the fourth woman in the United States and was the first Native woman to serve as General Counsel at USDA since 1905. She previously served Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack during the Obama-Biden administration as a Senior Advisor and was the founding director of the Office of Tribal Relations at USDA. She also previously served as a National Program Leader at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and a senior official within the Risk Management Agency.
She was the founding CEO of the Native American Agriculture Fund, the nation’s largest philanthropic organization focusing solely on improving Native food and agriculture and was the founder of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas School of Law.
Ms. Hipp has almost 40 years of experience in agricultural law, having begun her work during the 1980s farm financial crisis. She is a recognized expert in agricultural law and in the intersection of agricultural law and Indian law. She has been honored by University of Arkansas and Oklahoma City University where she received her LL.M. in agriculture and food law, and her J.D., respectively, and by numerous other organizations for her expertise and leadership. She has also been named to the Chickasaw Nation Hall of Fame.
She is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and was raised in a small rural town in southeast Oklahoma; her permanent home is in Fayetteville, Arkansas.