Samuel Crowell joined ASTA in 2022. Prior to ASTA, Sam served in the U.S. government for seven years, including as a Section Chief for Biotechnology and Trade at the U.S. Department of State, a Director for Agricultural Affairs in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), and an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Policy Fellow within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of the Chief Scientists. In these roles, he was a proud advocate for U.S. agriculture and served as the lead on negotiations and initiatives related to food security, trade, regulatory, and science policy issues.

Sam grew up in West Virginia and completed his B.S. in biology at West Virginia University. He holds a Ph.D. in the plant sciences and international development from Cornell University, where he conducted field work on rice germplasm, genomics, and high-throughput phenotyping at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Philippines.