SOUTH ROYALTON, VT. (AP) — Vermont Law School is hiring a senior lawyer with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to head its new Center for Agriculture and Food Systems.

Law school president and dean Marc Mihaly says the school has chosen Attorney Laurie Ristino to be the center’s first director and to serve as an associate professor of law.

Ristino has worked on conservation issues under the 2002 and 2008 federal farms acts. She also lectures at George Washington University Law School.

The mission of the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems is to promote economically and environmentally sustainable agriculture through legal and public policy research.