Kerissa Chapman is the new executive director of the Tulare County Farm Bureau in California. She takes over the role after Tricia Stever Blattler stepped down effective July 1. Blattler held the role for almost 20 years.
Governor Gavin Newsom has appointed Devon Keeler as deputy secretary for communications and external affairs for the Department of Food and Agriculture. Since 2022, she has been the assistant executive director of the office of community partnerships and strategic partnerships within the office of community service and community engagement.
Kerissa Chapman (LinkedIn photo)The Oakland Board of Port Commissioners has unanimously elected Stephanie Dominguez Walton to be board president. The outgoing board president, Andres Cluver, will be the first vice president. Dominguez Walton has been on the board since 2023, and her one-year tenure as president will begin on July 23.
Jared Blumenfeld, who was appointed to the California Water Resources Control Board a couple of weeks ago, has taken his seat at his first board meeting. He was the California EPA secretary until 2022 and then president of the Waverley Street Foundation.
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."
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.
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.
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 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’
Mary-Dell Chilton at the National Inventors Hall of Fame Illumination Ceremony. (National Inventors Hall of Fame photo)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.
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.
Roddy Peeples (NAFB photo)
The senior director of public 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.
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, the Washington Post reported. She became 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.
