Co-Chairs
A.G. Kawamura
Produce/specialty crop grower and shipper; Former Secretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture; Founding Partner, Orange County Produce, LLC.; President, Solutions For Urban Agriculture
Fred Yoder
Corn, soybean, and wheat producer; Past President, National Corn Growers Association; Past Director, Ohio Corn and Wheat Growers Association; Chair, North American Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance (NACSAA)
Thomas Lovejoy
Biodiversity Chair, University Professor, George Mason University; Founder, Nature Television Series; Formerly President, Heinz Center; Chief Biodiversity Advisor and Lead Specialist for Environment for Latin America and the Caribbean, World Bank
President
Ernie Shea
President and CEO, Natural Resource Solutions, LLC.; Formerly CEO, National Association of Conservation Districts; Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Agricultural Development and Resource Conservation, State of Maryland
Board Members
Gale Buchanan
Formerly Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, USDA; Dean and Director Emeritus, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Georgia; Co-chair, Research, Development and Knowledge Sharing Work Group
Melinda Kimble
Senior Fellow, UN Foundation; Formerly, Ms. Kimble served as a state department foreign service officer, attaining the rank of minister-counselor. She served in policy-level positions in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, overseeing multilateral development issues and debt policy; in the Bureau of Oceans, International Environment and Scientific Affairs (OES), leading environmental negotiations (e.g, Climate Change Conference, Kyoto, Japan, 1997). Her assignments abroad include Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt and Tunisia.
Ray Gaesser
Corn and soybean producer; Gaesser is past Chairman and President, American Soybean Association, an active leader in the North America Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance (NACSAA); serves as Co-Chair, Iowa Conservation Infrastructure Initiative; and is an active leader in numerous Iowa agriculture and economic development boards.
Gary MacDonald
For five decades Gary MacDonald and his family owned MacDon Industries in Winnipeg, Canada, where he served as Vice President in charge of sales and marketing. MacDonald is a member of the Round Table, Farm Foundation; honorary member, AEM (having served as co-chair in 2002); past chair, EMI in 2001; and board member, VineView/SkySquirrel – a Canadian company that uses drones to detect diseases and drought in vineyards.
Pat O’Toole
Rancher, conservationist and public lands expert; President, Family Farm Alliance
Rudy Rice
Chair, Native Pollinators in Agriculture; former President, National Association of Conservation Districts; past Chairman, National Conservation Foundation; former dairy farmer and partnership and public policy expert
Allen Rider
Retired President, New Holland North America; former Vice President, New Holland North America Agricultural Unit>
Nathan Rudgers
Senior Vice President, Farm Credit East; Formerly Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets, The State of New York; President, National Association of State Departments of Agriculture
Bart Ruth
Corn and Soybean producer; former President, American Soybean Association; 2005 Eisenhower Fellow for Agriculture
Sara Scherr
Founder, President, and CEO, EcoAgriculture Partners; Formerly Director of Ecosystem Services, Forest Trends; Co-Leader, CGIAR Gender Program; Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute; Principal Researcher, World Agroforestry Centre; Author of Ecoagriculture: Strategies to Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity (with Jeff McNeely)
Lois Wright Morton
Professor of Rural Sociology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Iowa State University; Author/co-author of six books including Pathways for Getting to Better Water Quality: The Citizen Effect and Managing Mississippi and Ohio River Landscapes; Director, USDA Sustainable Corn Project (2011-2017); small scale blueberry grower, Outwash Terrace Farm, Pierpont, Ohio
Howard-Yana Shapiro
Senior Fellow in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Davis; a Fellow of the World Agroforestry Centre; led the global effort sequencing, assembling and annotating the Theobroma cacao genome and initiated the Arachis genome; and a leading global expert on plant breeding, molecular biology and genetics.
SfL Founding Leaders
A.G. Kawamura, Co-Chair
Produce/specialty crop grower and shipper; Former Secretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture; Founding Partner, Orange County Produce, LLC.; President, Orange County Harvest
Thomas Lovejoy, Co-Chair
Biodiversity Chair, University Professor, George Mason University; Founder, Nature Television Series; Formerly President, Heinz Center; Chief Biodiversity Advisor and Lead Specialist for Environment for Latin America and the Caribbean, World Bank
Ernie Shea, Project Coordinator
President and CEO, Natural Resource Solutions, LLC.; Formerly CEO, National Association of Conservation Districts; Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Agricultural Development and Resource Conservation, State of Maryland
Sarah Alexander
Director of Environment Practice, The Keystone Center; Formerly Assistant and Writer, Center for Resource Management; Co-Chair, Monitoring Progress and Measuring Success Work Group
Ralph Ashton
Founder and Director, Australian Futures Project;Formerly Convener and Chair,Terrestrial Carbon Group at the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the EnvironmentCo-Chair, Markets to Generate Solutions from the Land Work Group
Mohamed Bakarr
Senior Environmental Specialist in the Secretariat, Global Environment Facility at the World Bank; Formerly Executive Director of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International; Director of Strategic Initiatives and Assistant Director General, World Agroforestry Center
Gale Buchanan
Formerly Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, USDA;Dean and Director Emeritus, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Georgia; Co-chair, Research, Development and Knowledge Sharing Work Group
John Buchanan
Senior Director of Food Security and Agribusiness, Conservation International; 15+ years at CI, Formerly worked in the food packaging sector
Mark
Cackler
Manager,
Agriculture and Environmental Services Department, World Bank;
Formerly
Overseas Representative, John Deere Intercontinental, Ltd.
Jason
Clay
Senior
Vice President, Market Transformation, World Wildlife Fund (WWF);
Most
recently, author of World Aquaculture and the Environment (2009),
Exploring
the Links between International Business and Poverty Reduction:
A Case
Study of Unilever in Indonesia (2005) and World Agriculture
and the
Environment (2004)
David
Cleary
Director
of Agriculture, The Nature Conservancy; Formerly
Academic, University of Edinburgh;
Academic, University of Cambridge;
Academic, Harvard University
Neil
Conklin
President, Farm Foundation, NFP; Formerly Director of
the Market and Trade
Economics Division, USDA’s Economic
Research Service; Vice President and Chief Economist, Farm
Credit Council; Professor, Arizona
State University, University of Arizona, Colorado State University
Chuck
Conner
President
and Chief Executive Officer, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives;
Formerly Deputy Secretary, U.S.
Department of Agriculture; Special
Assistant to the
President for Agricultural Trade and Food Assistance, National
Economic
Council; President, Corn Refiners Association, Inc.;
Majority Staff
Director, Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee
Reid
Detchon
Vice
President for Energy and Climate, United
Nations Foundation; Executive Director, Energy Future Coalition;
Formerly: Director of Special Projects in Washington, Turner Foundation;
Principal, Podesta Associates; Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary for
Conservation and Renewable Energy, US DOE; Principal
Speechwriter, Vice
President George H. W. Bush
Dan
Dooley
Senior
Vice President, External Relations and Special Advisor for Agriculture
and
Natural Resources, University of California; Formerly Chief
Deputy
Director, California Department of Food and Agriculture; Chair,
California Water Commission; Partner, Dooley,
Herr and Peltzer,
LLP;
Partner, Dooley Farms
Cornelia
Flora
Charles
F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Agriculture and Life Sciences and
Sociology, Iowa State University; Author of Communities and
Agroecosystems, Rural Communities: Legacy and Change, 3rd
edition;
Former Director, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development;
Co-Chair Research, Development and Knowledge Sharing Work Group
Ben
Grumbles
President, U.S. Water Alliance; Formerly: Assistant
Administrator for
Water, US
EPA; Director, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality;
Deputy
Chief of Staff and Environmental Counsel, U.S.
House Science Committee; Senior Counsel for the Water Resources
and
Environment Subcommittee, US House Transportation and
Infrastructure
Committee; Co-chair, Policies to
Extend the Range of Services from the Land Work Group
Richard
Hamilton
President
and Chief Executive Officer, Ceres Inc.; Founding Member, Council
for
Sustainable Biomass Production; Formerly Vice Chairman, Biotechnology
Industry
Organization; Principal, Oxford Bioscience Partners; Howard
Hughes
Medical Institute Research Fellow, Harvard Medical School
John
Hardin
Owner, Hardin
Farms; Formerly President, National Pork
Producers Council;
Chairman, United States Meat Export Federation; Chair, Agricultural
Advisory Committee of the Chicago Board of Trade; Vice
Chair of the
Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee for Trade, USDA and US Trade
Representative
Melinda
Kimble
Senior
Fellow, UN Foundation; Formerly, Ms.
Kimble served as a state
department foreign service officer, attaining the rank of
minister-counselor.
She served in policy-level positions in the Bureau of Economic and
Business
Affairs, overseeing multilateral development issues and debt policy; in
the
Bureau of Oceans, International Environment and Scientific Affairs
(OES),
leading environmental negotiations (e.g, Climate Change Conference,
Kyoto,
Japan, 1997). Her assignments abroad include Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt
and Tunisia.
Jim
Lyons
Senior
Director of Renewable Energy, Defenders
of Wildlife; Lecturer
and Research Scholar, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental
Studies;
Formerly Vice President for Policy and Communications, Oxfam America;
Vice President, Oxfam America Action Fund; Under Secretary for
Natural
Resources and Environment, U.S.Department of Agriculture;
Co-chair, President
Clinton’s
National Clean Water Task Force
Marty
Matlock
Professor
of Ecological Engineering, Department of Biological and Agricultural
Engineering, Executive Director for the Office for Sustainability,
and
Program Director for the Center for Agricultural and Rural
Sustainability, University of Arkansas; Chair of the
Environmental Protection Commission, Cherokee
Nation; Co-Chair, Monitoring Progress
and Measuring Success Work Group
Cassie
Phillips
Vice
President of Sustainable Forests and Products, Weyerhaeuser; Formerly
Legislative Assistant, US Senator Slade Gorton; Chief Counsel, Senate
Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Science, Technology
and Space; Co-Chair
Markets to Generate Solutions from the Land Work Group
Debbie
Reed
Executive
Director, Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (C-AGG); Executive
Director, International Biochar Initiative; President and
Director, DRD
Associates; Formerly Director of Legislative Affairs and
Agricultural
Policy, White House Climate Change Task Force; Senior
Legislative
Assistant, US Senator J. Robert Kerrey
Allen
Rider
Management
consultant; Formerly President, New
Holland North America; faculty member at Oklahoma
State University and University
of Nebraska
Nathan
Rudgers
Senior
Vice President, Farm Credit East; Formerly Commissioner of
Agriculture
and Markets, The State of New York; President, National
Association
of State Departments of Agriculture
Bart
Ruth
Corn
and soybean farmer; Formerly President, American Soybean Association;
2005 Agriculture Fellow, Eisenhower Fellowships; Next
Generation Fellow, Columbia University’s American Assembly
Sara
Scherr
Founder,
President, and CEO, EcoAgriculture Partners; Formerly Director
of
Ecosystem Services, Forest Trends; Co-Leader, CGIAR Gender
Program;
Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute;
Principal Researcher, World Agroforestry Centre; Author
of Ecoagriculture:
Strategies to Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity (with Jeff
McNeely)
Dave
Tenny
President
and CEO, National Alliance of Forest Owners; Formerly Vice
President for
Forestry and Wood Products, American Forest and Paper Association;
Deputy Undersecretary for Natural Resources, USDA; Counsel and
Policy
Advisor, US House Committee on Agriculture
Neal
Van Alfen
Professor
of Plant Pathology and Former Dean of the
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of
California, Davis; Fellow, American Association for the
Advancement of Science; Former Chair, National Agricultural
Biotechnology Council; Former President, American
Phytopathological
Society; Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food
Systems
to be published by Elsevier Press; Editor, Annual Review of
Phytopathology; Co-Chair, Policies to Extend the Range of
Services from
the Land Work Group
Jay
Vroom
President
and CEO, CropLife America; Formerly Executive Vice President
and CEO, National Fertilizer Solutions Association; Chief
Executive, Merchants Exchange of St. Louis, Mo
