Julie Anna Potts is the President and CEO of the Meat Institute, where she leads the Institute in the implementation of all programs and activities for the association. An agriculture veteran, Potts previously served the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) as its executive vice president and treasurer. Potts first joined AFBF in 2004, serving as general counsel until 2009. In 2009, she was named chief counsel of the Senate Agriculture Committee, serving under then-Chairman Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. Earlier in her career, Potts was an associate in the environmental law groups of the Washington, DC, law firms Mayer Brown, LLP, and Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal. She also clerked for U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia from 1997-1998.

Potts earned her law degree at The George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC, and her bachelor of arts in English at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She is a trustee of The Pennsylvania State University and serves on the boards of Agriculture Future of America, the International Stockmen’s Educational Foundation, the International Meat Secretariat and the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. In January 2021, Potts was appointed to USDA’s Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee.