Celebrating Women’s History Month
Christina Winters is the newly appointed district conservationist in Hereford field office for the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS).
By Cassandra Osborn
NRCS Texas District Conservationist
Christina Winters is the newly appointed district conservationist in Hereford field office for the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). Like most women in the workforce today, Christina climbed the civil service ranks while juggling an active home life as a wife and mother to six-year-old Kinsley and two-year-old Nolan.
Christina had an accidental spark of passion that led a young girl with no agricultural background, to a college graduate of West Texas A&M University with a degree in Plant, Soil, and Environmental Science.
Originally from the Red Oak, Texas, area, Christina had a passion for horses and spent her free time trail riding with friends, but she wasn’t introduced to careers in agriculture in the typical manner as many NRCS field employees. Christina wasn’t given opportunities to participate in Future Farmers of America (FFA) classes during her private education. Instead, it was a horticulture class she took to satisfy a science credit for her history degree, that influenced a change of major for her.
During her time at West Texas A&M University, a wrong turn into an animal science lab, for which she was not enrolled, led her to meeting her future husband, Matt, an Animal Science major who has spent years farming.
After graduating in 2014, Christina and Matt were married stared a family. She spent a few years working retail and had their daughter Kinsley before a career tip from her mother let Christina to apply for a position with NRCS in early 2019, where she was hired as a General Schedule Grade-5 employee.
Christina has been in the Hereford field office ever since and has worked her way up from a GS-5 to her current grade of GS-11 in only three-and-a-half years.
Matt was hired by NRCS as a Soil Conservation Technician in the Canyon, Texas, field office in 2020.
With plans to raise her family and continue to build her career with NRCS, Christina said she is in it for the long haul.
“The best part about working for the NRCS is being in the field and getting to see and help improve this beautiful country,” she said.
(Editor’s note: Are YOU interested in a rewarding, full-time career with NRCS Texas? Whether you are still in high school, just out of college, or looking for a job change that takes you out of the office and reconnected with the land, we may have something for you. Texas NRCS is currently hiring recent college graduates and direct hires now! Find all our latest career opportunities and job listing on USAJobs.gov. Also check out the Texas NRCS YouTube channel to hear from NRCS employees about careers with our agency.)
