Welcome to our Member Spotlight page, where we highlight the expertise, achievements, and policy impact of our community. Our members contribute cutting-edge research and real-world insight to some of the most pressing issues in agricultural trade and policy, helping to inform discussions at national and international levels. This spotlight is updated quarterly in May, August, November, and February.
May 2026 member spotlight: Shawn Arita
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Shawn Arita is an Associate Research Professor and Associate Director at the Agricultural Risk Policy Center (ARPC) at North Dakota State University, where he also serves as the Center’s Policy Lead. He directs research teams within ARPC in conducting research and analyses in areas of global commodity markets, trade disruptions, risk management, crop insurance, and farm safety net programs.
Shawn leads ARPC’s policy outreach, working directly with federal agencies and industry stakeholders across both DC and the Midwest. He briefs Congressional staff on the Hill on the agricultural policy issues of concern for Congressional offices and Midwest stakeholders, such as the ongoing challenge of high fertilizer prices and input costs, farm bill provisions, crop insurance, farm income and farm safety net developments, trade policy issues and tariff impacts, and ad-hoc farm support. His work bridges rigorous academic research with practical policy implementation, translating complex analyses into actionable insights for decision-makers across government and industry. He also leads the NDSU Ag Trade Monitor.
Before joining NDSU, Shawn served as Senior Economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of the Chief Economist, where he led economic analysis on global commodity markets, trade policy, agricultural supply disruptions, input costs, and farm safety net programs. He helped design ad-hoc assistance programs responding to trade and market disruptions affecting U.S. producers and provided model-based assessments for WTO trade dispute arbitration and evaluations of agricultural markets under international trade agreements. Earlier in his career, Shawn served in the Agricultural Affairs Office at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and as a research economist with USDA’s Economic Research Service. He was named USDA Economist of the Year for his research on market disruptions affecting U.S. agriculture. Shawn earned his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii and hails from the Aloha State.