Cassidy Rasnick has been appointed Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry after Sam. T. Towell was appointed Attorney General for Civil Litigation.

Cassidy re-joins the McAuliffe team from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), where she oversaw the agency’s economic development efforts through her role as Manager of the Office of Agriculture and Forestry Development.  Prior to joining VDACS, Cassidy served as Assistant Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry for Governor McAuliffe, where she managed all economic development efforts, including oversight of the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development (AFID) fund.  She previously worked for the Virginia Manufacturers Association and Virginia Craft Brewers Guild, and served for five years in the Office of U.S. Senator Mark Warner.

Cassidy is a native of Botetourt County, Virginia, where she graduated from Lord Botetourt High School. She is a graduate of James Madison University where she received a B.A. in Political Science and English, and the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership Program at the University of Virginia.  Cassidy currently resides in Richmond with her husband, Sam Schwartz.