Jonathan Coppess
Director of the Gardner Agriculture Policy Program
Associate Professor, Agricultural & Consumer Economics, UIUC
Gardner Associate Professor of Agricultural Policy
Dept. of Agricultural and Consumer Economics Affiliate, Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment
Associate Professor, College of Law (by courtesy)
Bio
Jonathan Coppess is the Leonard and Lila Gardner-Illinois Farm Bureau Family of Companies Endowed Associate Professor of Agricultural Policy in the Department of Agricultural & Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The author of two books on the legislative history and political development of farm policy (The Fault Lines of Farm Policy, 2018; and Between Soil and Society, 2024), he is a member of the farmdoc project and a frequent contributor to farmdoc daily. He leads the Gardner Agricultural Policy Program and the Policy Design Lab. Jonathan previously served as Chief Counsel for the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, as well as on a temporary, part-time basis as a special counsel. Prior to his service on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, Jonathan served as the Administrator of the Farm Service Agency at USDA and Legislative Assistant to Senator Ben Nelson. Prior to his time in Washington, DC, Jonathan was a litigation associate at Freeborn & Peters LLP in Chicago, IL. Jonathan grew up on his family’s farm in Western Ohio, earned his Bachelor’s from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and his Juris Doctor from The George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC.
Education
J.D. Law The George Washington University Law School 2001
B.S. Business Marketing Miami University Oxford, OH 1996
Area(s) of Expertise
Agricultural Law and Policy