Stephanie Shirk serves as the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Director of the Agriculture Business Development Center (ABDC), where she leads initiatives to strengthen farm businesses and expand market opportunities, connecting Pennsylvania’s diverse agricultural assets to evolving regional and global markets—helping producers grow, innovate, and compete.

Raised on a dairy farm, she brings both lived experience and strategic leadership to advancing agricultural entrepreneurship and bridging rural and urban communities to meet the demands of an increasingly interconnected food system.

She holds a Master’s degree from Penn State Smeal College of Business and with her husband Jim, is a ninth-generation owner of Silver Valley Farm in Lancaster County.