Beth Gaston is a policy analyst for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and teaches writing and leadership courses for the agency. She has been promoting plain writing throughout USDA and co-developed the department’s online “Introduction to Plain Writing” course. She also teaches federal-wide for the Plain Language Action and Information Network. Beth considers clear communication essential for any program or project to be productive. She believes plain writing leads to more effective government programs because it results in better collaboration with other government agencies, industry, nongovernmental organizations and private citizens.