Paul Lasley

Paul Lasley

Paul Lasley is probably best-known to most Iowans for his insights gleaned from more than 20 years directing the Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll.

Since 1982, Lasley has directed an annual survey of more than 2,000 Iowa farm families. Questions range from specifics of their farming operation and financial situation, to opinions about biotechnology, their quality of life, recreation activities, and future on their farm. Results from the poll, done in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, are used to provide researchers and policymakers insights into pressing issues and to guide development of ISU Extension programs. The poll’s findings have been cited in many national, regional and state media outlets.

Lasley has been an extension sociologist at ISU since 1981. He also is serving as professor and chair of the ISU sociology and anthropology departments.

“I have a good handle on the issues confronting Iowa farm families,” Lasley said, adding that the Leopold Center can play a huge role in Iowa agriculture. “The Leopold Center should provide catalytic leadership to the array of farm and rural issues. It must direct its attention to building coalitions, collaborations and partnerships.”

He said he was most interested in putting food security and resource conservation high on the Center’s agenda. “Not enough attention has been given to the ‘culture’ in agriculture,” he added.

Lasley was raised on a farm in northern Missouri. Although his parents are retired, his wife’s parents continue to farm. He has a bachelor’s degree in animal husbandry, and master’s and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

He is a member of the Youth and Shelter Services board of directors and deacon at United Church of Christ-Congregational in Ames. He and his wife Pauletti have two daughters; one is a social worker in Columbia, Missouri and the other is a nurse at Broadlawns Hospital in Des Moines.

Aaron Heley Lehman

Aaron Heley Lehman

Aaron Heley Lehman raises corn, soybeans and hay on a six-generation family farm near Polk City in rural Polk County. He farms about 700 acres, of which a small part is under transition to organic.

On the advisory board Lehman represents the Iowa Farmers Union, where he had worked for eight years, in the late 1990s serving as its executive director and then its legislative lobbyist. He follows Dallas County farmer Marvin Shirley, who had served on the board since 1994, when three farmers and one agribusiness representative were added to the board as ex-officio members (and later were designated as full voting members).

Lehman said he had learned about the Leopold Center through its many sponsored research projects, and was pleased to be appointed to the advisory board.

“The work of the Leopold Center is drastically important if we want a sustainable future for agriculture,” he said. “The Center can conduct research in promising areas of sustainable agriculture that simply won’t be explored by anyone else.”

Lehman received an undergraduate degree in physics from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and taught for several years before going back to the farm. Currently, he teaches Sunday school at his church where he also is a member of the choir. He was elected to the North Polk Community School Board in 2005.

He and his wife, Nicole, have an eight-year-old daughter and six-year-old son.

John Olthoff

John Olthoff

John Olthoff is professor of agriculture at Dordt College, located in Sioux Center in northwest Iowa. He was appointed to replace Wes Jamison, who left Dordt College earlier this year to move back to Florida. Olthoff will represent the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities on the board.

“I appreciate the opportunity to complete Wes’ term,” he said. “While there are challenges to agriculture in Iowa at this time, there is also a bright future. There needs to be a uniform effort from all parts of the state to promote the status of agriculture.”

Olthoff served as a member of the animal issues team in the 1980s. He said, “The Leopold Center has supported an interesting diversity of projects, and it helps address issues throughout the state, and can be in the position to support innovative ideas and bring together diverse groups.”

He joined the Dordt faculty in 1989 and has taught or directed more than 25 courses and workshops in animal science and has been involved in demonstration projects through the college’s Agriculture Stewardship Center.

He has a Ph.D. in animal breeding from the University of Nebraska and a master’s degree in animal science from the University of Minnesota. Since coming to Iowa, Olthoff has been very active in extension activities. He has worked with ISU Extension on a number of programs, including feedlot runoff, marketing, food safety and quality assurance training, and intensive grazing. He currently chairs the Sioux County Extension Council.

Olthoff is a board member for the Sioux Center Christian School and has been involved with Laotian ministry in the area. He and his wife, Becky, have three young sons.