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Steve Bohr
Steve began his 33-year financial services career immediately upon graduation from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1992. Born and raised on his families’ farm in nearby Wellman, Iowa his heritage was deeply engaged in agriculture. In 1993, Steve founded Farm Financial Strategies, Inc. (FFS), a program to offer strategies to ‘preserve the family farm’. Today FFS has 13 associates and does business in 7 Midwestern states and Arizona. While saving estate shrinkage was the original mission, keeping countless numbers of farms in the rural community has been the driving force behind day-to-day operations. Steve is a founding partner in a firm called Next Gen Ag Advocates, Ltd. Where FFS is positioned to transition operating farms within the family, Next Gen’s mission is to match inheriting or retiring landowners with a local producer to operate the farm when there is not a next generation to farm in their own family. He currently writes a popular column on farm transition and succession strategies in the Iowa Farmer Today, Illinois Farmer Today and Missouri Farmer Today publications. Steve is active at his church and owns and operates his family farm in southeast Iowa. He is married to his college sweetheart, Jennifer. They are the proud parents of Brody (age 26), twins Baxter and Ayva (age 22).
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Dr. Maria Jose Clavijo
Maria Jose Clavijo is a half-time Research Associate Professor in the Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine Department at Iowa State University. Her research focuses on clinical and field-based investigations of infectious diseases in livestock, with particular emphasis on bacterial diseases of swine. She leads projects involving the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) to better understand pathogen dynamics and support disease prevention strategies. Prior to focusing exclusively on research, Dr. Clavijo spent 10 years working in Health Assurance at PIC (Pig Improvement Company), where she designed and implemented whole-herd disease prevention and elimination programs across multiple countries while concurrently holding her position at ISU. She obtained her PhD from the University of Minnesota in 2014, studying the epidemiology of Mycoplasma hyorhinis in U.S. swine production systems. Dr. Clavijo earned her Veterinary Medicine degree from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in 2009, where she also practiced before pursuing her PhD.
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Dr. Matt Culbertson
Matt was born and raised on a swine farm in Western Illinois where he gained his initial experiences within the swine industry. After graduating from Oklahoma State University (BS - Animal Science) and the University of Georgia (MS, PhD – Animal Breeding and Genetics), Matt returned to the Midwest and worked for Heartland Pork Enterprises where gained experience supervising a range of activities from technical operations to production to business development and transportation. In 2002, Matt moved to North Carolina and began working for Murphy Brown / Smithfield Foods where he managed their internal genetics program and production operations as well as technical operations for their Eastern operations and integration relationships between live production and slaughter processing. In 2011, Matt joined PIC and held multiple roles including leading NA sales and serving as Global Director for Product Development and Technical Services. In 2023, Matt became the Chief Operating Office for PIC and leads our global teams in support of making our customers the most successful pork producers in the world.
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Command Sergeant Major Gretchen Evans
Texas native Command Sergeant Major Gretchen Evans is one of the most decorated female veterans in U.S. history having received the Bronze Star, the Combat Action Badge, and the Purple Heart. She held leadership roles in multiple combat engagements throughout her 27 years in the Army, including overseeing more than 30,000 ground troops in Afghanistan. In 2006, while serving in Afghanistan, Gretchen’s world changed in a millisecond when a rocket blast caused her debilitating injuries including losing all hearing -- ending her military career. With the help of her guide dog and her rope team of friends, Gretchen navigated her way through a changed life and adopted a new mission: to advocate on behalf of wounded veterans. In 2019, she founded Team UNBROKEN, a mixed-ability athletic team, competing in races and events all around the world. In 2022, Gretchen received the Pat Tillman Award for Service at the ESPYS.
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Dr. Edison Magalhaes
Edison obtained his Veterinary Medicine degree in Brazil in 2015 and worked as a swine veterinary practitioner in the Brazilian swine industry for four years. In 2019, he moved to the U.S. to pursue a Master’s in Preventive Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University. He earned his PhD in 2023 from the same university, specializing in developing automated models to analyze swine data for better decision-making. Currently, Edison is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University, focusing on data integration and machine learning to help pork producers improve their practices.
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Dr. Bret Marsh
After a career in public service that spanned 40 years, including 30 as Indiana State Veterinarian and head of the Indiana State Board of Animal Health, Purdue alumnus Bret Marsh, DVM, became the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine’s new dean and Veterinary Hospital CEO in November. He also holds the title of clinical professor of veterinary medicine. A first-generation college student from rural Indiana, Dr. Marsh earned his bachelor’s degree in animal sciences from Purdue’s College of Agriculture before enrolling in the college that he now leads, earning his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1984. In addition to his service to the state of Indiana, Dr. Marsh has held several national leadership roles. He served as special detail to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture’s homeland security staff following 9/11, and provided leadership to the United States Animal Health Association, serving as president and as a member of its board of directors. He also has served the American Veterinary Medical Association - the primary accrediting body for colleges of veterinary medicine worldwide - as the Indiana delegate and a six-term treasurer, and the Indiana Veterinary Medical Association as its president and board chair.
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Cody McKinley
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Bernt Nelson
Bernt Nelson is an Economist in the Government Affairs Dept. at American Farm Bureau Federation in Washington D.C. Bernt originally comes from a family farm in rural Fullerton ND where he grew up with his two younger brothers. The farm is still active today. Bernt got both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Agricultural Economics from North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND before spending 5 years working with Clemson Cooperative Extension in South Carolina. Bernt combines his experience growing up on the farm with his expertise as an economist to provide analysis and advocacy in livestock markets, rural development, finance and ag research.
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Dr. David Newman
Dr. David Newman is senior vice president of market growth at the National Pork Board. He oversees NPB’s work in domestic and international market development, multicultural and human nutrition. David has worked extensively throughout the pork industry, including production, academia, and consulting. He holds a Ph.D. in meat science and animal science from North Dakota and a bachelor’s in animal science from the University of Missouri, with a minor in international agriculture.
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Dr. Brett Ramirez
Brett Ramirez is an associate professor in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University. He leads an integrated research and extension program focused on ventilation design and management, climate physiology, mass mortality management and several other topics related the swine facilities. His mission is to provide and advance the science and technology needed to address the aforementioned areas in swine production systems. His program aims to generate practical solutions to current and emerging issues surrounding animal agriculture and its producers.
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Brady Reicks
Brady grew up on a row crop and hog farm in Northeast Iowa. He attended Iowa State University from 2003-2008 and graduated with a double major in Management and Marketing from the College of Business. Following school, he spent 18 months at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage then spent 5 years working for Kerns and Associates (now a part of EverAg) as a broker/consultant. The last 10 years he has been an owner/operator in his family business. Brady spends most of his time working with live production decisions and essentially managing margin. This includes hedging, purchasing feed ingredients, managing nutrition, and marketing hogs.
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Jeremy Robertson
Jeremy Robertson’s passion for the swine industry began in the late 1990s while working on a family-owned farrow-to-finish and row crop operation in south central Indiana. That early experience sparked a lifelong dedication to pork production. Jeremy later joined United Feeds, where he focused on sow production, research, and technical support. In 2012, his career path brought him to Iowa, where he was introduced to the Brenneman Family. Today, Jeremy serves as Director of Operations at Brenneman Pork, overseeing sow and grow/finish production, research and development, and feed milling formulation and logistics. Jeremy is involved in national pork industry leadership. He currently serves on the NPPC Animal Health & Food Security Policy (AHFSP) Committee, represents pork producers on the NPPC H5N1 Response Plan Committee, and contributes to the National Swine Health Strategy Committee as a producer representative. Jeremy and his wife Rachel live in rural Washington County, Iowa, where they are raising their four children who share their strong passion for agriculture.
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Dr. Juan Stiebel
Juan Steibel is a Professor of Animal Science at ISU and Lush Chair of Animal Breeding at Genetics at ISU. His research is concerned with the development, adaptation and application of numerical methods for the integration of genomics and phenomics data. More specifically, Juan's main interest in applying such methods to understand the genetic basis of animal behavior and how that impacts the production and welfare livestock and poultry raised under group-house conditions.
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Don Stromley
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Dr. Karine Talbot
Currently serving as the Senior Director of Animal Health, Nutrition, and R&D at HyLife, based in Manitoba, Dr. Talbot earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from the Université de Montréal in 2008. Over the years, Dr Talbot served as President of both the Canadian and Western Canadian Associations of Swine Veterinarians, and she is still serving on the Board of Director of the Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarian (CASV-ACVP) since 2011. Dr Talbot also actively contributes to industry working groups, addressing critical issues like diseases preparedness, biosecurity, and animal welfare.
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Alex Weekly
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Sam Wildman
Sam is Strategic Projects Director at the Meat Institute and is charged to build, launch and lead projects that demonstrate credible action and help both members, and the industry earn consumer trust. He grew up as the 8th generation on his family’s pig and crop farm, spent 7 years as a lead facilitator and project manager for a global food and agribusiness consulting firm, and three years developing partnerships between the livestock and feed sectors and the world's largest environmental non-profit, World Wildlife Fund. He lives in Ankeny, Iowa with his wife and two sons.
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Stacie Matchan
Program Specialist
