I-CASH named Cheryl Tevis of Pilot Mound, Iowa, the 2007 recipient of the Agricultural Safety and Health Hall of Fame Award. Tevis received this recognition at the Iowa State Fair on August 15 during the WOI midday radio show which aired live from the Iowa State University Extension booth. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey presented the award.
A writer and editor with Successful Farming magazine since 1979, Tevis serves as senior farm issues editor for the magazine. Founded in 1902, Successful Farming is one of the most successful and recognizable publications in agriculture, reaching 1.2 million readers each month.
Throughout her professional career, Tevis has worked to improve the public’s knowledge of farm safety and health issues, especially those that affect rural children. She has received numerous awards for her writing, including the National Award for Excellence in Journalism from the North American Agricultural Journalists (2006); the American Agricultural Editors’ Association Writing Award (2006); the American Corn Growers Voice of Agriculture Award (2002); and the Milt Hakel Award for Agricultural Communications from the National Farmers Union (2001). She also was a finalist in the 1990 National Magazine Awards for her article “We Kill Too Many Farm Kids.”
Tevis also devotes considerable time to farm health and safety issues beyond her journalistic duties. She volunteers with her local 4-H club, and she serves on the Boone County Extension Council. Tevis also has served several terms on the board of directors and helped developed programming for Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, an Iowa-based organization that promotes farm safety awareness among children through educational resources and training programs to individuals and communities.
Tevis grew up on a 320-acre grain and livestock farm near Sioux City, Iowa. She received a bachelor’s degree at Morningside College in Sioux City and a master’s degree in journalism in 1975 at theUniversity of Missouri. Prior to joining Successful Farming, she was an associate editor for Farm Wife News at Reiman Publications in Milwaukee, Wis.