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To reach our general
office manager, call (515) 294-3711, or e-mail:
leocenter@iastate.edu
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Jerald R. DeWitt
Director, Leopold Center
Professor of Entomology
209 Curtiss Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1050
Daytime phone: (515) 294-7836
Email:
jdewitt@iastate.edu
Interim Policy Initiative
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Appointed Director, effective
January 1, 2007, to a three-year interim term. Had
served as Interim Director since November 2005 to handle day-to-day
administrative duties and to provide leadership on
in-state issues and opportunities for Iowa
agriculture. Jerry is a long-time sustainable
agriculture leader at the state, regional and
national levels. He also continues to coordinate
Iowa State University Extension's Sustainable
Agriculture Program and is coordinator of the
Iowa Learning Farm.
Current bio for Jerry DeWitt
More about his photography in
these books,
Renewing the Countryside and
People Sustaining the Land |
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Frederick
L. Kirschenmann
Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center
[Also ISU
Professor of Religion and Philosophy and
President, Stone Barns Center for Food and
Agriculture]
209 Curtiss Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1050
Daytime phone: (515) 294-5588
Email:
leopold1@iastate.edu
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Appointed November 2005 as Distinguished
Fellow after having served since July 2000 as Director following a nationwide
search. He also manages his family's
3,500-acre certified organic farm in
south central North Dakota. Helped found Farm Verified
Organic, Inc., a private certification agency, and the
Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society. Served
numerous national/ international appointments, including
USDA's National Organic Standards Board, the North Central
Region's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)
administrative council, Henry A. Wallace Institute for
Alternative Agriculture board of directors. Earned degrees
from Yankton College in South Dakota, Hartford Theological
Seminary in Connecticut, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the
University of Chicago. Author of numerous articles and book
chapters dealing with ethics and agriculture.
He also is a member of the
National
Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production operated
by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and funded by
Pew Charitable Trusts. Kirschenmann is convening chair
of a multi-state task force,
Agriculture of the Middle, that focuses on research and
markets for midsize American farms. The group also has
established the
Association of Family Farms to create standards and
markets for these types of food.
Current bio
for Fred Kirschenmann
Read his regular columns in the Leopold Letter,
or check the Speeches
and Presentations page.
A Song for America Fred
Kirschenmann joins writers such as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,
Barbara Kingsolver, Eric Schlosser, Wendell Berry and
Michael Pollan in this book to commemorate the 20th
anniversary of the grassroots Farm Aid movement.
Kirschenmann writes about "A Bright Future for Farmers in
the Middle."
More
Fred
Kirschenmann's farming operation and excerpts from his
writings [7-2000].
Areas of Responsibility: Serves as Associate
Director and Marketing and Food Systems program leader.
Provides oversight to Center's competitive grants program,
responsible for program assessment and new program
development. Conducts research on ecolabels and food system
pathways. Also is project director of the Value Chain
Partnerships for a Sustainable Agriculture (VCPSA) and its
Regional Food Systems Working Group, which is funded in part
by the Wallace Center of Winrock International.
Served as education director for the Center from 1990-2000;
holds partial appointment with ISU Extension. Has been very
involved in local food system efforts, is a member of the
Governor's Food Policy Council, and has worked to open
institutional markets. Rich has conducted research on food
system pathways and energy use in the food system. He has a
master's degree in agricultural meteorology from the
University of Missouri and an undergraduate degree in earth
science from Kean College in New Jersey.
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Jeri Neal
Ecological Systems Research Program Leader
209 Curtiss Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1050
Daytime phone: (515) 294-5610
Email:
wink@iastate.edu
Areas of Responsibility: Serves as Ecological Systems and
Research Program Leader. Conducts research on the
development of ecologically friendly systems that are more
resilient and less costly to farmers, communities and the
environment. She also oversees the Center's grassland
agriculture program that began in 2004, and represents the
Center on several multi-state, landscape-level programs
including Green Lands, Blue Waters.
From 1993 to 2001 she coordinated the
Center's competitive grants program and research issue teams. Her previous experience includes
work in several capacities for Ralston Purina, Cargill, and
Quaker Oats companies in Missouri, Texas, and Iowa. She
holds a bachelors degree in Grain Science and Milling
Management from Kansas State University and a master's
degree in International Development Studies from Iowa State
University. Her agrarian roots are in Kansas, where her
parents are still actively farming. Outside interests
include cycling, skiing, and slow food.
Blue Maas
Secretary/General Office Manager
209 Curtiss Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1050
Daytime phone: (515) 294-3711
Email:
Areas of Responsibility: Provides
secretarial support to the Director and
Distinguished Fellow, as well as general support for other
members of the Center staff. She also answers the telephone,
fields inquiries and requests for publications, makes
arrangements for meetings, maintains the Center's extensive
database, and helps the staff with various mailings and
other projects. She joined the Center staff in October 2006.
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Karen Jacobson
Administrative Specialist
209 Curtiss Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1050
Daytime phone: (515) 294-9388
Email:
kjacobso@iastate.edu
Areas of Responsibility: Manages the
Center's grant accounts and finances
Joined the Center staff in July 2005 as a
full-time accountant and will provide backup office support
for payroll and purchasing. She is a certified public
accountant with a diverse background in public and private
accounting that includes seven years as controller for
Bethany Life Communities, a continuing care retirement
community in Story City. She also has worked as an
independent consultant, auditor and corporate treasurer for
an Ames bank. She has a degree in accounting from Augustana
College in Illinois and an MBA in accounting from the
University of Wisconsin Madison. In October 2007, she was
named
Woman of the Year by the American Society of Women
Accountants and selected the Region 3 winner of the
Balance Award for Individual Achievement.
Malcolm Robertson
Program Specialist
209 Curtiss Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1050
Daytime phone: (515) 294-1166
Email:
malcolmr@iastate.edu
Areas of Responsibility: Provides
assistance in applied economics for Leopold Center research
initiatives and special projects. He is developing
methodologies to assess externalities of various production
systems, including niche pork and organic flax, and ways to
track improvements to crop-livestock diversity. He also is
working with the Center's grassland agriculture program to
help document enterprise budget information for alternative
crop and livestock enterprises.
Joined the Center in May 2006, after working
two years as partnership program manager for the ISU College
of Agriculture's Corn and Soybean Initiative. He is a native
of Zimbabwe, where he has experience as an irrigation
engineer for the greenhouse and agricultural export
industry, and owned a drip and micro-irrigation company. He
was senior horticulturist for the country's largest chemical
company for several years, and introduced integrated pest
management practices to the company's sales force and
growers. He holds a master's degree in agricultural and
applied economics from Clemson University in South Carolina.
Mary Adams
Outreach and Policy Coordinator
209 Curtiss Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1050
Daytime phone: (515) 294-5832
Email:
madams@iastate.edu
Areas of Responsibility: Oversees various
outreach activities as assigned by the director, acts as
Center's Advisory Board liaison, and assists with Policy
Initiative activities. Editor of annual report and Center
Progress Report (CPR).
Her previous writing and editorial
experience includes positions with Iowa State University's
Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), Iowa
State University Press, University of Illinois Press, and
the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST).
A graduate of ISU's department of journalism and mass
communications, she grew up on an Iowa dairy farm.
Laura Miller
Communications Specialist
209 Curtiss Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1050
Daytime phone: (515) 294-5272
Email:
lwmiller@iastate.edu
Areas of Responsibility: Edits and designs
The Leopold Letter, the Center's quarterly
newsletter; works with news media; prepares materials for
displays, other publications and the Center's web site, and
oversees general communications for the Value Chain
Partnerships (VCP) project
of the Leopold Center.
Joined the Center in 1998, after more than
10 years working as editor and communications consultant for
ISU Extension and the Safe Farm program. Also worked as food
editor for the Ames Tribune and reporter and editor
for several Kansas City newspapers. A graduate of the
University of Kansas William Allen White School of
Journalism, she received a master's degree in mass
communication in 1993 from Iowa State. Grew up on a small
farm in Grundy County, Iowa, where her parents still live.
Beth Larabee
Program Assistant
209 Curtiss Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1050
Daytime phone: (515) 294-8530
Email:
blarabee@iastate.edu
Areas of Responsibility: Holds a 75 percent
appointment with the Value Chain Partnerships for a
Sustainable Agriculture (VCPSA) project, and a 25 percent appointment at the
Leopold Center to assist with the Marketing Initiative.
Provides project analysis, accounting, communications and
oversight of various VCPSA projects and activities.
Having grown up on a family farm in
northeast Nebraska, she earned a master's degree in soil
science and an undergraduate degree in agronomy from Iowa
State University. She came to the Leopold Center in October
2006, and for the past two years had worked as a research
associate for the ISU Extension Soil Conservation and
Management program and has worked closely with several
members of the ISU Agronomy Department faculty and Practical
Farmers of Iowa. She also has worked as a graduate and
undergraduate teaching assistant, developing materials for
web-based instruction and multiple media presentations. In
2000, she coordinated a six-day workshop for World Bank
personnel in Iowa, "Sustaining Agriculture in Industrial and
Developing Economies."
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