Kelly Cushman has been named vice president of political affairs at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), where she will lead the organization's political and grassroots advocacy efforts. She started her new role on Monday. Most recently Cushman was the vice president of domestic policy for the National Pork Producers Council. Aside from NPPC, Cushman also previously served at the Department of Defense, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and worked at the White House during the George W. Bush administration.
Kelly Cushman, NRECADave Juday has joined Aimpoint Research as a member of its executive advisory group. He will be the executive adviser on economics and trade. Juday is the founder and principal of The Juday Group and brings experience in market analysis, policy, economics, issue management, agriculture and food. He also has experience working on Capitol Hill and in the White House.
Erica Chabot is joining Mehlman Consulting as a principal at the end of the month. She previously worked on the Senate Ag Committee under Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., as her staff director. Before joining the Senate Ag Committee, Chabot worked for now retired Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Former Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., has registered to lobby for the Renewable Fuels Association and Corn Belt Ports under Mercury Public Affairs. She previously served five-terms in the House of Representatives and sat on the House Ag Committee.
The National Corn Growers Association has added Laura Wolf to its staff as the new director of investor relations and communications. She will work with the organization's funders, including state checkoff programs, and also work on public relations efforts. A native of Missouri, Wolf previously worked at OBP Agency where she helped grow the agency’s agriculture client portfolio and worked on campaign development, brand strategy and cross-channel communications for the agency’s clients.
Ben Kota has been promoted to serve as the new chief operating officer at the National Wildlife Federation. A registered attorney, Kota first joined NWF in 2013 and brings more than 20 years of legal expertise in nonprofit advocacy, fundraising, and corporate governance to the position.
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, has made two staff updates to the committee’s tax and economic teams. Michael Gould is the new tax counsel. He previously worked at the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Chief Counsel as a senior attorney. James Williams is the new tax and economic policy adviser. He previously worked in Sen. John Thune’s, R-S.D., office where he advised the Republican Whip on tax, international trade and economic policy issues. Before that, he worked for former Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., as a deputy legislative director and senior economic policy adviser.
Laura Wolf, NCGAEPA Administrator Michael Regan selected a new round of individuals to serve on the Science Advisory Board (SAB) and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. Kimberly L. Jones has been tapped as the chair of SAB. She serves as the associate provost for faculty affairs and professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Howard University. Other SAB members include John DiGiovanni, professor in the Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin; Rebecca Fry, distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Douglas C. Wolf, D.V.M, senior fellow at Syngenta; Maximilian Auffhammer, George Pardee Jr. Professor of International Sustainable Development, the Regional Associate Dean in the College of Letters and Science, and the Vice-Chair of the Academic Senate at UC Berkeley; Veronica J. Berrocal, professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of California Irvine (UCI); Yiliang Zhu, professor and chief in the Division of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Preventive Medicine University of New Mexico School of Medicine; and Henry (Dirk) Felton, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC).
The Interior Department has announced Deputy Interior Secretary Tommy Beaudreau will step down at the end of the month after serving two years in the role. He first joined the Interior Department in 2010 under the Obama administration. During that time, he served as the first director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Acting Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, and Chief of Staff to Secretary Sally Jewell. He was confirmed to the No. 2 position in June of 2021.
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National Turkey Federation President and CEO Joel Brandenberger has announced he will retire next year on June 30. He has been with the organization for 33 years and served 17 of those as president and CEO. He first joined NTF in May 1991 as director of public affairs. NTF plans to conduct a nationwide search for its next leader.
Ryan Quarles has been selected as the fourth president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, effective at the beginning of the year. Quarles was elected in 2016 as the Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture and completes his term at the end of the year. Before that, he served as a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives. Quarles is a former community college student.
Eric Hinds has joined Meristem Crop Performance Group as the new sales and dealer coach in west-central Indiana and eastern Illinois. He will be based in Oxford, Indiana. Hinds is a certified crop adviser (CCA) and previously worked for Corteva Agriscience for 13 years as a territory manager.
Polsinelli PC has brought on J. Powell Carman as a new shareholder in the business department. Carman will counsel on transactions related to agribusiness and ag tech.
Peoples Company, a land transaction and management business, has hired Jonathan Shively as managing director of capital partnerships. Before joining PC, Shively worked at AcreTrader, a farmland real estate investment company.
Lon Gretillat has been named vice president of sales at Fusionware, an ag supply chain platform enabling companies to digitize their processes. Gretillat brings 25 years of experience in technology sales, operations management and strategic planning. He previously worked at CropTrak where he was the vice president of sales.
The National Cotton Council’s Vice President of Technical Services Don Parker passed away on Oct. 2, after battling a brief illness. He was 57. He also served as the executive director of The Cotton Foundation. The family asks that donations be sent to the American Cancer Society in his honor.
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