More than 1,000 miles away in Washington, D.C., Rachel Knust Millard, BSBA’08, is advocating for constituents “back home” in the Midwest.
As communications director for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Millard spent nearly two years working on the 2018 Farm Bill, signed into law on Dec. 20, 2018, by President Donald Trump.
The $867 billion bill addressed a variety of agricultural-related concerns, including trade, conservation, nutrition and energy — a perfect fit for the Chamberlain, South Dakota, native.
“Agriculture is the lifeblood of the rural community that I grew up in,” Millard says.
The farm bill helps “provide certainty to the economies of rural communities,” she says, adding that the legislation received bipartisan input and support from members of Congress.
With nearly 10 years in Washington, Millard has primarily spent her time on Capitol Hill. She began working in Washington as an intern at the White House while studying at Creighton.
“I had a feeling that, at one point, I might want to go back,” Millard says.
After earning a degree in marketing from Creighton in 2008, she returned to Washington and eventually worked in South Dakota Sen. John Thune’s office as press secretary and then communications director.
Her Creighton experience, she says, has not only prepared her well for her day-to-day professional responsibilities, but has taught her to ask the bigger, deeper questions, such as “What is justice? What does that look like in the world?”
“(Creighton) has served me well,” Millard says. “Asking the questions, and not being afraid of what the answer might look like.”
