USA Rice made some changes at its annual meetings. Leadership was elected to two-year terms: John Owen of Arkansas was named USA Rice chair, Colin Holtzhaur was named chair of the USA Rice Merchants’ Association, Todd Burick will be chair of the USA Rice Millers’ Association, and John Frederick Denison will be the Rice Foundation chair. All leadership changes go into effect Aug. 1.
The Livestock Marketing Association has named the leadership for its committees. Todd Eberle will be chair of the Animal Handling and Facility Management Committee, Ben Hale will be chair of the Emergency Preparedness Committee, Brody Peak will be chair of the Government and Industry Affairs Committee, Stephanie Barnett will be chair of the Market Access and Viability Committee, Michael Simpson will be chair of the Sheep and Goat Committee, and Kyle Shobe will be chair of the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship Committee. The committees’ leadership will serve two-year terms.
Guy Peri and Mary Snapp were both named to Feeding America’s national board of directors. The two began their terms on July 1. Peri is the current chief information and digital officer of McCormick and Company. Snapp has worked at Microsoft for almost 38 years and is the senior fellow at Microsoft Corporate External and Legal Affairs.
Clean Fuels Alliance has elected Chelsey Robinson to be on its board of directors. She is the director of stakeholder affairs for bioeconomy and sustainable ag systems at Bayer Crop Science.
Chelsey Robinson (LinkedIn photo)Kris Prentice is returning to Ecolab as the new vice president of enterprise solutions for brew/beverage. She was with the company for over 21 years until 2021, and in the meantime has worked for Sterilex and MGK.
The National Grain and Feed Association has added Evan Dean as the vice president of government and legislative affairs. He worked previously for Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., as a legislative director.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has added Chris Naley as the director of registration and events. He has held similar roles at 2U, University of Colorado, University of Denver, and St. Edward’s University and the Executive Office of the President.
Caitlyn Warren has joined Texas Beef Council as a program coordinator. She recently graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in communication and media studies. As an undergrad, she had an internship at Central Church Bryan-College Station.
AMVAC Chemical Corporation hired Hermann Castro as the senior vice president of marketing and business development. He held a similar role at Plasma Waters, and has worked for Enza Zaden Americas, BASF, Chemtura, and Del Monte.
Chris Hoffman, the president of Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, has resigned, according to Lancaster Farming. Vice President Tommy Nagle will serve as president until another election is held. Hoffman was elected to be president in 2022 and he was elected to the American Farm Bureau Federation board of directors in 2023. He owns and operates Lazy Hog Farm and he was named America’s Pig Farmer of the Year by the National Pork Board in 2019.
Lynsee Gibbons has been promoted to vice president of communications at the U.S. Apple Association. She has been with the organization for over three years. She has held roles at the National Fisheries Institute and Golden Key Group.
The Office of the Secretary at USDA has promoted Lizzy Elder to be operations coordinator. She has been with the agency for nine months as a confidential assistant. She held a role as a development operations officer with the Leadership Institute prior to her tenure at USDA.
Ujjwol Paudel has been hired at Texas Tech University as an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics. He recently was a postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University in the Department of Supply Chain Management. His work focuses on mechanics of food prices and labor markets.
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting has hired Stephanie Hoff as a broadcast journalist. She has experience in multimedia agriculture journalism from the Mid-West Family of Companies and WisBusiness.com.
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Mary-Dell Chilton at the National Inventors Hall of Fame Illumination Ceremony. (National Inventors Hall of Fame photo)blic affairs at the National Turkey Federation, Alex Davidson, has announced that he is leaving the organization after two years. He has not shared his next role, but he has previously worked for the Beer Institute and the U.S House.
Eric Olsen has been promoted to deputy state director for The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey. He has been with the nonprofit for over 20 years and was recently the director of lands and rivers.
Davrina Rianda was hired by the Nutrition Policy Institute at the University of California as a postdoctoral scholar and assistant project scientist. She co-founded Mama4Planet, which aims "to empower mothers ..., leading to better nutrition and [a] better environment."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has hired its communications fellows: Molly Medeiros and Grace Williams will be on the Fight for Free Enterprise mission, and Valeria Garaycoa and Laynie Clark will be on the digital marketing team.
The Cattlemen’s Beef Board awarded Glen Klippenstein the 2026 Beef Checkoff Visionary Award on July 14. He was one of the original members of the Beef Board in 1986 and chaired the board in 1990-1991. Klippenstein is from Maysville, Missouri.
Norma Ritz Johnson, executive director of the United States Sorghum Checkoff Program, will be retiring at the end of 2026. She stepped into the role in 2021. The next executive director for the checkoff has not been named, but a search committee has been formed.
Mary-Dell Chilton, who developed the first genetically modified plant, has died at age 87. She became known as the “queen of agrobacterium” in the 1970s. Her research focused on combating the pest, which alters DNA of plants like grape vines. After her work on agrobacterium, she was recruited by Ciba-Geigy, which became Syngenta in 2000. Revisit her Agri-Pulse Open Mic episode.
Roddy Peeples, who established the Voice of Southwest Agriculture Radio Network, died on July 7 at age 94. He was a member of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting since 1956, served as president of NAFB in 1982, and was named Farm Broadcaster of the Year by the organization in 1992. He has since been inducted into the NAFB Hall of Fame.
