Bridging the Agricultural Divide: Advocacy and Communication

February 05, 2024 / audra mulkern

In this episode, Audra welcomes Judy Sanchez, an experienced communicator with a deep connection to agriculture. Judy shares her childhood experiences on her family farms, highlighting the magical and educational moments spent helping her grandparents. The conversation explores Judy's path to agricultural communications, her endeavors in advocating for farming, and her efforts to connect farmers with the broader public, all underscored by the vital role farmers play in supplying essential resources for the nation.

Show Notes

Judy Sanchez

U.S. Sugar, Senior Director | Corporate Communications and Public Affairs

With decades of experience and passion for family, farming communities and feeding American families, Judy Sanchez serves as Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at U.S. Sugar.

For more than 30 years, Sanchez has refined U.S. Sugar’s message and executed its vision in a highly effective and purposeful way. Her ardent passion for corporate stewardship is now deeply rooted within the company culture. These unique qualities place her in the top tier of communications professionals across the country and were recognized by Ragan’s Top Women in Communications Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. She also was named A Woman of Distinction in her hometown, one of her community’s highest honors for local women.

Today, Sanchez leads the company’s external and internal communications functions, including social media, public relations, public education, public affairs, and outreach programs. She has served as the corporate spokesperson for most of her tenure with the company.

Well-versed in trade, regulatory and environmental issues, extensive knowledge of the industries that touch U.S. Sugar has made her a champion for safe farming, clean water, and necessary regulation. Sanchez has been a part of the Agriculture Trade Advisory Council (ATAC), Central Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce, Western Palm Beach County Farm Bureau, the Ag Communicators of Florida, South Florida Water Management District’s Water Resources Advisory Commission (WRAC), and the Lake Okeechobee Regional Economic Alliance of Palm Beach County.

In addition to her role with one of the nation’s premier agricultural operations farming sugarcane and a variety of spring and winter vegetables, farming is personal to Judy Sanchez. She comes from a multi-generation family of Southern farmers in Mississippi and Southeastern Arkansas. She and her sister inherited the family farms and along with cousins make decisions in managing cotton, corn and soybean farms lands. Her husband’s family grows sweet corn and green beans in Southwest Florida.

Her credentials include the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communication and a B.A. in communications from Florida Atlantic University.

Sanchez was born in South Carolina and raised in Belle Glade, FL, where she and her husband Julio raised their two sons. The family now includes two grandsons and a granddaughter, and her life could not be any sweeter.