Who We Are

A former diplomat with 24 years of service as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, Paul Q. Harrison is the President of Agriculture Advocates – an experienced team of former government experts dedicated to helping the U.S. agricultural community navigate today’s rapidly changing global economic and trade landscape. 

As Director of the Office of Agricultural Policy at the Department of State Mr. Harrison led the team of agriculture and trade experts in the development of trade policy and international engagements, such as efforts to ensure a level playing field for U.S. biotechnology products, the elimination of regulatory barriers to U.S. agricultural products, and efforts to ensure greater returns for U.S. producers via new markets and new opportunities for their agricultural products.

As Director of the Office of Bilateral & Regional Affairs in the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, Mr. Harrison led the U.S. team in the Global Digital Connectivity Partnership (GDCP) with Japan, served as co-chair of the Technology and Telecommunications working group in the U.S. – EU Trade & Technology Council and helped develop the telecommunications aspects of the Indo-pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). His team was responsible for the international 5G security campaign, efforts to negotiate new data transfer arrangements with the European Union, bilateral and regional dialogues and the Digital Cybersecurity and Connectivity Partnership – State’s global programming mechanism to assist countries with telecommunications network security.

As a Foreign Service Officer, Mr. Harrison served in a variety of posts in Africa, Europe and the Americas. He is a 2020 graduate of the Eisenhower School at the National Defense University, where he focused on critical minerals supply chains. Originally from southern Illinois, where he milked cows, churned butter, raised hogs and chickens and even scythed wheat on his parent’s “hobby farm,” he grew up in the Carolinas and joined the Foreign Service after obtaining his JD from the University of Tennessee.

Dr. Szymanski is a managing partner in Agricultural Advocates LLC. Previously, she had 23 years of service at the U.S. Department of State, where she worked in the Office of Agricultural Policy, collaborating with U.S. companies, government agencies, and international organizations.  Marcella has experience in a breadth of issues related to foreign policy, agricultural trade, food safety, food security, and agricultural science and technology.  Marcella joined the U.S. Department of State in 2005 under the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship Program, where she oversaw science and technology policy for Pakistan and larger policy issues related to Bangladesh. Marcella has worked both as a bench scientist and with rural farmers in the United States and abroad.  

Dr. Szymanski received her Ph.D. in Forest Economics from Iowa State University in 1997 and an M.S. in Forest Genetics from Oklahoma State University in 1987.