Keynote Session:
Keynote Speaker: Matt Russell, MS, State Executive Director, USDA, Farm Service Agency 
Matt Russell was appointed by the Biden Administration to serve as the State Executive Director of the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Iowa in November 2021. Russell is a fifth-generation Iowa farmer who grew up on a livestock farm in Cass County. He now co-owns and operates Coyote Run Farm, a family farm near Lacona, Iowa.
In 2018, Russell served as the Executive Director of Iowa Interfaith Power and Light, a statewide faith-based climate action organization. His previous work experience includes Drake University’s Agricultural Law Center, Iowa Citizen Action Network, Catholic Rural Life, and Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. Russell was previously appointed to the Iowa FSA State Committee under the Obama Administration and served in that role for eight years.
Russell earned a master’s degree in rural sociology from Iowa State University and a bachelor’s degree from Loras College. He has a passion for Iowa agriculture and rural America and has extensively written on the subject for local, statewide, and national publications.
He is a member of the Iowa Farmers Union, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Iowa Farm Bureau, and the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association. Russell served on the Marion County Development Commission and has volunteered on several Iowa political campaigns over the past two decades.
Coyote Run Farm includes his spouse Patrick Standley and their sons Austin, currently serving in the Army, and Devon and his wife Emma, who live and work in Marion County, Iowa.
Keynote Discussant and Capstone Facilitator: Ahna Kruzic, MS, Associate Director, Regenerative Agriculture Foundation
Ahna Kruzic (she/her) joined Regenerative Agriculture Foundation as Associate Director in March 2020. Ahna has a tremendous diversity of experience in nonprofit management, regenerative agriculture, and supporting farm and racial justice. Originally from southern Iowa, Ahna currently lives in Oakland and most recently served as Pesticide Action Network’s Communications and Media Director. She holds a Master of Science in sustainable agriculture and sociology from Iowa State University, and has worked as community organizer, researcher, coalition-builder, publisher, and communicator. Prior to joining PAN, Ahna worked as Director of Publications and Communications at Food First / the Institute for Food and Development Policy. She has also served as the Interim Executive Director for the Women, Food and Agriculture Network in 2020.
Panelists:
Jesse Bell, PhD. University of Missouri
Email: jesse.bell@unmc.edu
Dr. Jesse E. Bell is the Claire M. Hubbard Professor of Water, Climate, and Health in the Department of Environmental, Agricultural, and Occupational Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the School of Natural Resources within the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is also the director of the Water, Climate and Health Program at UNMC and the director of Water, Climate and Health at the University of Nebraska’s Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute. His expertise and research are focused on understanding the impacts of changes in the environment and climate on natural and human processes. Before coming to UNMC, Dr. Bell developed and served as the first individual to hold an interagency position between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He was a lead author for the U.S. Global Change Research Program report “The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment” that was released by the White House in 2016. He also served on the White House Pandemic Prediction and Forecasting Working Group and assisted with a project focused on forecasting dengue fever outbreaks. Dr. Bell is a reviewer for the annual Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change and a contributing author on the United Nations Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) Working Group report titled, “Thinking ahead: Drought resilience and COVID-19”. He is also serves as a Faculty Fellow for the National Strategic Research Institute. Dr. Bell received his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma and is a native Nebraskan.
Mary Hendrickson, PhD. University of Missouri
Email: HendricksonM@Missouri.edu
Mary Hendrickson is Associate Professor in Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri and serves as Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security. She is a rural sociologist whose passion is making the world a better place through food. The way we produce and consume food has transformed rapidly over the past few decades for both consumers and producers, placing food and agriculture at the nexus of critical 21st century issues of climate change, water scarcity, hunger and energy use.
Hendrickson seeks to contribute to the robust discussion among scholars, policy-makers and citizens about the positive and negative implications of food system changes for farmers, rural communities, the overall environment, and for the health of our population. Her scholarship focuses on the social and economic organization of different types of food systems, the social, ecological and economic impacts of that organization, and options for changing how we organize the food system. In a nutshell – how can we transform our food systems to make all of our lives better and make us more resilient in the face of our changing climate.
She spent 15 years as an extension sociologist working to create local food systems in the state of Missouri, partnering extensively with community groups to increase the amount of fresh, flavorful and nutritious food available by providing technical assistance on marketing, business planning, feasibility studies, policy, food safety and consumer preferences to farmers and community groups. In 2020 she was a Fulbright scholar to Iceland and has received several teaching and extension awards. She currently teaches sustainable food and farming courses at Mizzou.