Andy Larson is Iowa State University Extension Specialist in Small Farm Sustainability, charged with increasing the viability of Iowa’s smaller-scale, entrepreneurial farm enterprises with diversified markets and production systems.  In addition to serving as coordinator of the Grass-Based Livestock Working Group for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, he is transitioning into the role of Iowa state sustainable agriculture coordinator for the SARE Professional Development Program. Larson earned an MBA with a minor in Sustainable Agriculture from Iowa State University, also serving a term as president of the Student Organic Farm. Prior to that he worked for University of Illinois Extension’s Initiative for the Development of Entrepreneurship in Agriculture. His previous degrees are in anthropology and environmental science from the University of Notre Dame, and natural resources and environmental sciences from the University of Illinois. Larson grew up on a family dairy and grain farm in Pecatonica, Illinois.

Phone: (515) 294-5875
Email: allarso1@iastate.edu

Mae Rose Petrehn is currently pursuing her master’s degree with the Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. Her undergraduate work, at Northland College in Northern Wisconsin, was in rural sociology and philosophy. She has traveled and worked on six farms in five states, with a focus on diversified crop and livestock production. Other interests include becoming trained to teach planned grazing, goal setting, biological monitoring and more as a certified educator through Holistic Management International. The title of Petrehn’s thesis work, to be completed in the fall of 2010, is “Mapping the Social Landscape of Grazing in Iowa: Visions for Ecosystem Services Provisioned by Grazing Systems in the Raccoon River Savanna Bird Conservation Area.” She is originally from Kansas City, Kansas, with family roots in the hills of northeastern Kansas and eastern Iowa.

Phone: (515) 294-9845 
Email: mpetrehn@iastate.edu
View her web site

Rich Pirog joined the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University in 1990. He is the Program Leader for the Center's Marketing and Food Systems Initiative, and became associate director in February 2007.  Pirog directs the Value Chain Partnerships (VCP) project, a multi-organizational effort that provides technical assistance to farmer-led food businesses in Iowa. Through VCP, Pirog leads the Regional Food Systems Working Group, which focuses on making the case for investment in local and regional food businesses and networks. Pirog is also the leader of the Good Food Network of the Upper Midwest, a six-state network funded in part by the Wallace Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

Pirog's research and collaborations on food miles, food value chains, local and place-based foods, and ecolabels has been publicized in magazines and media outlets across the globe, used by local food practitioners, and is often cited in books and college courses. In 2003, he received the Iowa Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award from Practical Farmers of Iowa, and in 2004, he received the Iowa State University College of Agriculture Award for Outstanding Achievement and Service.

Phone: (515) 294-1854
Email: rspirog@iastate.edu
Read more about Pirog on the Leopold Center web site

Dr. J Gordon Arbuckle’s research and extension activities focus on improving the social and environmental performance of agriculture. Areas of interest include farm succession, non-operator landownership, watershed management, and agri-environmental policy and practice. He is co-director of the Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll.

Phone: (515) 294-1497 
Email: Arbuckle@iastate.edu
Read more about Arbuckle on the ISU Department of Sociology web site

Jess Jackson Jr. grew up near Abilene, Texas on a ranch. A second generation NRCS’er, his parents raised beef cattle and had a couple of dairy cows, some dairy goats, chickens, horses, and sheep at various times. He graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor’s and master's degree in range management and a bachelor’s degree in agronomy.  Jackson is also a trained grant writer and an accredited instructor at the graduate level for the U. S. Army.

Jackson moved to Iowa to accept a position assisting the Iowa Heartland RC&D in 1998 and then became the grassland specialist with the NRCS for southeastern Iowa in 2004. Jackson covers generally from Davenport to Des Moines then down to Missouri.

He’s been married 17 years and has four teenage children.  Jackson has also served almost 26 years in the Army National Guard and Reserves and holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Phone: (641) 472-8411, ext. 106
Email: Jess.Jackson@ia.usda.gov
Fax: 641-472-6211

Bruce Carney, who moved to his family's farm near Maxwell in 1996, has worked hard to set up his rotational grazing operation. He maintains a 125-cow herd on 100 acres of permanent pasture and 60 acres that he rents from neighbors. He rotates among a number of paddocks, using techniques he learned in ISU Extension programs, seminars and field days. Drawing on his experience as a construction superintendent, Carney has installed an extensive water system and about eight crossings, built with recycled concrete, two-foot culverts and rock. He has collaborated on a number of projects, including grazing cattle in the Chichaqua Bottoms, a greenbelt managed by the Polk County Conservation Board.

Phone: (515) 387-8769

Jeri Neal serves as Ecological Systems and Research Program Leader for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Neal 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, Neal 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 bachelor's 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 still actively farm. Her outside interests include cycling, skiing, and slow food.

Phone: (515) 294-5610
Email: wink@iastate.edu
Read more about Neal on the Leopold Center web site

Dave Petty is producer at Iowa Cattlemen's Association.

Email: DPetty30@gmail.com

Joe Sellers works as livestock field specialist serving the counties of Appanoose, Clarke, Davis, Lucas, Mahaska, Monroe, Wapello, and Wayne. Sellers works in Lucas, Iowa.

John Sellers owns 520 acres in northern Wayne County in south-central Iowa. Although he grows some corn, oats, and hay for a small cow-calf operation, most of his farm is used for switchgrass, a native crop he began growing more than 20 years ago to improve wildlife habitat and reduce soil erosion. Sellers began management intensive grazing in 1994. He has 16 paddocks on about 100 acres, and was the first recipient of EQIP funds in his county to install a rotational grazing system on cropland acres.

In addition to farming, Sellers has been active in renewable energy and conservation issues. He is past field coordinator for the Chariton Valley Biomass Project and past president of a switchgrass growers group, Prairielands Bioproducts, Inc., and also active in a number of organizations that promote bio-fuels.

Sellers has nearly 30 years of experience as commissioner with the Wayne Soil and Water Conservation District. He has served on the State Soil Conservation Committee as well as the Governor's Energy Task Force. He is the past chair of the Iowa Farm Bureau's Hay and Forage Advisory Committee, co-chairs the Iowa Grassland Alliance, and is past president of the Iowa Forage and Grasslands Council and has served on the board of directors for the American Forage and Grasslands Council. He was a member of the Leopold Center Advisory Board for two years.

Margaret Smith is an Extension program specialist with ISU Value Added Agriculture Extension and Sustainable Agriculture. Her Extension experience includes work in crop production and soil management, water quality, and county Extension education and administration. Smith has worked with clients in all aspects of agricultural production including farmers, agricultural input suppliers, agricultural lenders, landlords, farm managers, cooperatives, and farm commodity organizations.

Smith holds a Ph.D. in Crop Production and Crop Ecology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and is currently enrolled in the Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management Certified Educator Training Program. Smith is also co-manager of a 950-acre organic crop and livestock farm.

Phone: (515) 294-0087
Email: mrgsmith@iastate.edu