Ramona Romero, who joined Princeton University as its general counsel in 2014, was anything but a novice at running a legal department.

Before joining Princeton, Romero was general counsel at the U.S. Department of Agriculture for nearly four years, where her responsibilities ranged from forestry to the food stamp program. She joined the USDA after holding in-house posts at DuPont and one of its affiliates.

After graduating in 1988 from Harvard Law School, she joined Crowell & Moring in Washington, where she defended clients in civil and criminal enforcement actions brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and various enforcement agencies.