Ramona Romero
Ramona Romero, the general counsel of the Agriculture Department since 2011, will become general counsel at Princeton University on December 1, Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber announced today.

Romero directs a staff of about 275 people, serves as chief legal adviser to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and collaborates with the White House, the Justice Department and other federal agencies, Eisgruber noted. She also interacts with Congress and leads the USDA Office of Ethics.

“To paraphrase President Lincoln, the philosophy of the classroom today is the philosophy of government tomorrow,” Romero said in the Princeton news release.

“After nearly four years in government, I am thrilled to be joining an iconic institution that has for centuries been dedicated to training leaders in the nation's service.”

Romero served from 1998 to 2011 as a lawyer at E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co. and was corporate counsel for logistics and energy, and general counsel for Sentinel Transportation, a DuPont joint venture.

From 1988 to 1996, she was a litigator for the Crowell and Moring law firm in Washington.

She served as president of the Hispanic National Bar Association in 2008 and 2009, and testified on behalf of Sonia Sotomayor, a member of the Princeton Class of 1976, in 2009 before Sotomayor was confirmed as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Romero immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic at age 10. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Barnard College at Columbia University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.