Alumni Advocates of the Year

George Gomes
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

George Gomes currently serves as the undersecretary to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, an appointment he received from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in March 2007. Previously, he was the chief deputy director of the Department. He joined the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Division of Fairs and Expositions in 1975 and became its assistant director in 1977.

In 1983 he was Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s College of Agriculture Alumnus of the year. He has been credited with leading an organization that helps to protect the nation’s food supply and maintain farming as a major resource. Gomes has served as a mentor for students in the Future Farmers of America and 4H programs.

He began his professional career as an associate professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he taught agricultural management and served as Agribusiness Management Club (ABM) advisor for four years. Gomes served as the vice president of Cal Poly’s Associated Student Council and was the Outstanding Graduate in the College of Agriculture in 1966. The first in his family to attend college, he holds two degrees from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, a BS in agribusiness (1966) and a master’s in agriculture education (1967).