Colleen Landkamer served as a Presidential appointee for USDA Rural Development as the State Director in Minnesota from July 2009 through January 2018 and was reappointed in February 2022 through January 2025 . During her tenure, Rural Development invested approximately $10 Billion dollars throughout rural Minnesota.

She is a former elected Blue Earth County, Commissioner serving for almost 25 years and, prior to that, a Congressional Staffer.

Colleen served as President of the National of Association of Counties, an organization that represents 3,069 counties across the nation. In this leadership role, she advanced issues important to local government and rural economies and advocated building a stronger America through idea sharing, partnerships, innovative planning and transparency.

She formed, implemented and served as the first chair (5 years) of the NACo Rural Action Caucus and continues her involvement. The caucus is comprised of county officials across the nation who have redefined and shaped the landscape of how local government leadership creates meaningful progress in collaboration with federal lawmakers surrounding rural economic growth and sustainability.

Colleen led the Campaign for Renewed Rural Development, which is a group of 28 national organizations to empower and influence Congress in a non-partisan way to support rural communities through investments in infrastructure, healthcare, housing, economic development, alternative energy and broadband.

She attended Mankato State (MSU), the Army War College, was a Humphrey Institute Policy Fellow and a Columbia University rural policy fellow and is a graduate of the Senior Executive Program in State and Local Government from Harvard University, and the New York University leadership program.

In 2000, American City and County Magazine named Landkamer as the sole, “County Leader of the Year.”

Colleen was appointed to the Mankato Area Foundation Board of Directors in 2025.