New members join Leopold Center advisory board

One of the state's top conservationists, a prominent northwest Iowa beef producer, and a 10-year administrator of statewide agricultural programs have joined the Leopold Center Advisory Board. Each will serve a four-year term.They are:

• Lyle Asell, long-time assistant state conservationist for the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), appointed in April to succeed Don Paulin as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) representative on the advisory board;
  
• Connie Greig, who owns and operates her family's Little Acorn Ranch in Estherville, appointed in April to succeed Sally Puttmann in representing Iowa's soil and water conservation districts; and
  
• Mary Jane Olney, administrative division director for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS), appointed in February to succeed Shirley Danskin-White as the IDALS representative.

Born and raised on a livestock/grain farm in southwest Iowa, Asell has worked with the NRCS in Iowa for 32 years. He has held positions of soil conservationist, district and area conservationist, biologist, and resource conservation and development coordinator, and in 1988 was appointed assistant state conservationist for water resources. Recently he was tapped by Iowa DNR director Paul Johnson to direct agricultural and environmental programs.

Asell is still part of a family corn-soybean operation in Mills and Pottawattamie counties, and has a small cattle operation in Chariton, where he lives with his wife. He is a board member of the Iowa Soil and Water Conservation Society and has a fish and wildlife biology degree from Iowa State University.

Greig also brings a rich agricultural background to the advisory board. With her son, Greig operates a corn-soybean farm, while her husband John, a former Iowa legislator, and their other son operate a 2,000-head feedlot. In 1998, the Greig family received a regional award for their environmental stewardship from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. John and Connie also were recognized by ISU in 1992 when they were inducted into the Animal Science Hall of Fame, and in 1990 as members of the Iowa Cattlemen's Association Hall of Fame.

Connie Greig also has become active in animal health care issues on a national and international scale. She is a member of the National Research Council's animal drug committee, and has developed a management plan that emphasizes prevention and prudent use of antibiotics in her family's 200-head Simmental breed stock operation. She has an undergraduate degree in English education from the University of Iowa and has lived in Estherville all her life.

Olney is still active in her family's grain farm, which has been in operation for more than a century in Calhoun County. Once a teacher in the Des Moines public schools, she has a wealth of experience with soil and water conservation district activities, strategic planning and program development, staff training, and policy analysis. She manages the $30 million IDALS budget and is the department's liaison with various boards.

Born in Fort Dodge and raised in Des Moines, Olney now lives in West Des Moines with her husband. She has undergraduate and master's degrees from Drake University.

The advisory board has one position open-for a representative of Iowa's independent colleges and universities. Former board member Lenore Durkee recently retired at Grinnell College and has moved to the East Coast.