Faculty & Staff
Leadership Team
Brady Brewer
Brady Brewer
Brady Brewer is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics. Brady’s teaching responsibilities include the undergraduate agribusiness management course and the economics course in the MS-MBA. His research agenda includes the broader topics of agribusiness and profitability, agricultural finance, and production/supply chain issues at the farm level. His extension program includes educating farmers on credit concerns and lending, as well as working with the agricultural banks across the state. Courses that he has previously taught include the agribusiness management and agricultural finance courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
Before joining the faculty at Purdue, Brady spent three years in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Georgia. While there, he taught undergraduate courses in agribusiness management, agricultural finance and a graduate course in agricultural finance. Brady grew up on a family farm in Oklahoma that raised wheat, soybeans, alfalfa, and cattle. He received a B.S. in agricultural economics and accounting from Oklahoma State University and later earned both his M.S. and Ph.D from Kansas State University in agricultural economics.
David Downey
David Downey
Dave Downey founded and serves as the executive director emeritus of Purdue University’s Center for Food and Agricultural Business. He is responsible for the development of executive and management education programs for a wide array of individual companies, trade associations and public programs. The center has become recognized as the leader for agribusiness executive educational programs in the United States. It annually attracts hundreds of agribusiness professionals from across North America and around the world.
Dave is also professor emeritus of agricultural marketing at Purdue University. He has taught courses in agri-selling and agri-marketing strategy and helped develop Purdue’s major in agri-sales and marketing, the first such program in the country. Over his career, he has taught and counseled more than 10,000 students.
Dave’s primary focus is on marketing and selling to farmers. He has been deeply involved in many studies of farmer buying behavior, including Purdue’s Large Commercial Producer Project, a regular study of the attitudes and buying patterns of large growers across North America.
Dave has received several recognitions for professional excellence, including four major teaching awards from Purdue University and two national awards from the American Agricultural Economics Association. In 2004, Dave was recognized with the Special Boilermaker award from the Purdue Alumni Association for his “significant contributions to improve the quality of life and betterment of the educational experience for Purdue students.” In 2007, Dave was presented with the Distinguished Ag Alumni award from the Purdue Ag Alumni Association for his outstanding service to agriculture.
He has published three widely accepted books in his field. He is co-author of a new book, ProSelling: A Professional Approach to Selling in Agriculture and Other Industries, the most complete book on agri-selling in the market. It is used extensively by colleges and universities across North America. He has authored other books, including Agribusiness Management, published by McGraw Hill, and AgriSelling: Principles and Practice.
Dave is widely recognized as an agribusiness consultant in North America and in various countries around the world. He has worked extensively with Ravensdown, a leading input supplier in New Zealand and has held numerous seminars in Australia. He has worked extensively with Valley Irrigation in South Africa and with Valley territory managers from around the world. Dave was recently invited to speak with several hundred agronomic distributors in Brazil and has presented seminars to ag retailers in Argentina, Central America and the Caribbean. He has been invited to speak in the United Kingdom, France and Poland. He also taught an intensive, two-week marketing course in an agricultural MBA program in Beijing, China.
Scott Downey
Scott Downey
Scott Downey is the director of the Center for Food and Agricultural Business and a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics. He teaches in many of the center’s programs, as well as leads sales and marketing courses of over 300 undergraduate students each semester. Scott joined Purdue University on a full time basis in 2000 after spending 15 years in the financial services industry. He is also the lead author of “ProSelling: A Professional Approach to Selling in Agriculture and Other Industries.”
Scott is a frequent speaker and consultant for agribusiness industry sales teams on professional development topics like precision selling, sales management and competitive sales strategies. The discovery process he created has been adopted by Fortune 300 companies and has been presented all over the world.
Scott received his bachelor’s degree at Purdue University in 1985 and his MBA from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Calif., in 1991. He completed his doctorate at Purdue in 2007 in consumer behavior, looking at the relationship sales preferences of ruralpolitan buyers.
He has served as an adviser to the Purdue chapter of the American Advertising Federation and helped students found the Purdue Ag Sales and Marketing Club. He is active in the National FFA sales competition and has been active on local boards at United Way and other organizations.
Scott is a fellow of Purdue’s Teaching Academy, which strives to bring together the best teaching faculty from across campus. He is the recipient of the 2012 Richard Kohls Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award in the College of Agriculture at Purdue. He won a national teaching award in 2011 from the Agriculture and Applied Economics Association, the service organization for academics in agricultural economics.
His wife, Laura, is a veterinarian and currently heads a business that provides patient drug adherence products to pharmacies.
Aissa Good
Aissa Good
Aissa Good serves as Managing Director for the Center for Food and Agricultural Business and the Center for Commercial Agriculture in the Department of Agricultural Economics. In this role, she provides a strategic vision and leads the execution of all operational aspects of the centers. She is also responsible for identifying engagement opportunities, managing client and sponsor relationships, and designing and implementing professional development programs for farmers and agribusiness managers both domestically and overseas.
More specifically, Aissa cultivates client relationships and leads curriculum development in collaboration with client management and program faculty. Projects under her direction range from multi-session business management development programs to workshops enhancing key account management and market strategy planning skills of field sales and marketing personnel. She has worked with highly successful agribusiness firms and industry associations and understands the challenges that both small and large companies face in developing their future leaders.
Aissa holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business from Middle Tennessee State University. Most recently she completed her master’s of science in agricultural economics from Purdue University and her MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. She and her husband Ryan have two boys, Blaine and Brecken, and she spends most of her spare time at athletic events and 4-H activities.
Allan Gray
Allan Gray
Allan joined the agricultural economics faculty at Purdue University in August 1998. Allan currently holds the position of Land O’Lakes Chair in Food and Agribusiness. He works with food and agribusiness managers across the U.S. and internationally providing industry insights and strategy facilitations. He also teaches professional development seminars and workshops in the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue. Allan also teaches strategic agribusiness management in the undergraduate and graduate programs. Allan’s research interests are agribusiness management, strategic planning, decision under uncertain innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Allan serves as the executive director of the Center for Food and Agricultural Business (CAB). In this capacity, Allan provides strategic direction for the center helping to drive both executive education programming and Center research. The center’s mission is to meet the needs of the industry in professional development in the areas of sales, marketing, finance, strategy, talent management, and leadership.
Allan also serves the executive director of the Digital Innovation in Agri-food Systems LAB (DIAL). In this capacity, Allan provides strategic direction for market research and new business development. Allan works with the annual cohort of DIAL Fellows to identify industry challenges and create new startup companies to bring digital innovation to the industry that helps improve transparency, traceability, efficiency, resiliency and food safety across the food system.
Allan has won numerous awards, including the American Agricultural Economics Association’s (AAEA) Distinguished Extension/Outreach Program Award, the Purdue University Dean’s Team Award and the United States Distance Learning Association’s Excellence in Distance Teaching Award. In 2012, he received the inaugural Early Career Leadership Award from the National Association of Agricultural Economics Administrators.
A native Texan, Allan and his wife, Stephanie, have two daughters and a son.
Taryn Nance
Taryn Nance
Taryn Nance serves as the Associate Director, Sales and Marketing for the Center for Food and Agricultural Business. In this role, Taryn is a member of the center’s leadership team and is responsible for maintaining the center brand and creating awareness of programs and products offered. In addition, she is responsible for the development, implementation and promotion of the MS-MBA dual degree program.
Taryn holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Evansville and a master’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado. In her spare time, she enjoys running, reading and coaching.
Staff
Cooper House
Cooper House
Cooper House serves as the event manager for the Center for Food and Agricultural Business. In this role, he is responsible for the customer experience during in-person and online center programs and events. This includes managing all logistical details, providing support for staff, faculty, and participants, and overseeing an enriching learning experience.
Cooper has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business management from Purdue University. Before joining the center, he worked at Great Heart Seed as a district sales manager. In his spare time, Cooper enjoys spending time with his fiancé, Maddy.
Masie Keshavarz
Masie Keshavarz
Masie Keshavarz is a research project manager for the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue University. In this role, she is responsible for business development, relationship management with key agribusiness clients, and research development, which includes: client need assessment, issue identification and research design, collaboration with faculty and graduate students, and research evaluation.
Masie holds a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from University of Alberta, Canada and a bachelor’s degree in Economic Theory from Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran. Prior to joining the Center, Masie spent a year and a half working for Cargill Inc. and more than six years in the healthcare industry. Masie and her husband have one daughter, Attrina. In her free time, Masie enjoys spending time with her family, reading and outdoor activities.
Lourival Monaco
Lourival Monaco
Lourival Monaco is a postdoctoral research associate in agribusiness management and marketing for the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue University. His research efforts are focused on competitive intelligence, framework construction and strategic planning in agribusiness.
Before joining Purdue, Lourival worked as an agribusiness consultant for several consulting firms. In 2017, he worked with the Purdue University Center for Food and Agricultural Business as a visiting scholar. Lourival received his MBA in agribusiness, master’s degree in plant production and PhD in business administration from the University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Michelle Query
Michelle Query
Michelle Query is a Business Analyst for the Purdue University Center for Food and Agricultural Business and Center for Commercial Agriculture. In this role, she is responsible for day to day objectives of quality, coordination and maintenance of the customer databases and LMS tools for both centers. This includes assisting in the implementation of various sales and marketing efforts from a strategic and tactical perspective and working with internal staff, faculty, external subject matter experts and customers in the development and delivery of educational programs for adult learners.
In her spare time, Michelle enjoys spending time with her family and her great dane, Maverick.
Erin Robinson
Erin Robinson
Bio coming soon!
DeShea Wallace
DeShea Wallace
As customer relationship manager, DeShea leads and supports the development and execution of educational and research projects in the Center for Food and Agricultural Business. She is responsible for fostering relationships with clients, collaborating with faculty, and ensuring innovative, high-quality educational events that resonate within the food and agribusiness industry.
DeShea has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural communications from Texas Tech University. Prior to joining the center, she worked at the National Swine Registry as the creative design coordinator. In her spare time, DeShea enjoys spending time with her husband, Zac, their son, Liam, and their three dogs. She also enjoys reading, watching lots of Bravo TV shows, traveling, and freelance design.
Faculty And Instructors
Jay Akridge
Jay Akridge
Jay Akridge is the trustee chair in teaching and learning excellence and a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University. He served from 2017-2022 as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Diversity at Purdue. As Chief Academic Officer, he led the office responsible for the university’s overall academic strategy, faculty-related matters, teaching and learning, student life, enrollment management, engagement, and diversity, inclusion, and belonging, with a total budget of approximately $2 billion, student enrollment of more than 50,000, 2,700 faculty members, and 8,000 staff.
Jay previously served for 8+ years as the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture where he had administrative responsibility for the academic, research, Extension, and international programs of the college. He served as Director of the Purdue Center for Food and Agricultural Business from 2000-2007, as Interim Vice Provost for Engagement at Purdue in 2007-2008, and as Interim Dean of Agriculture in 2008-2009.
He has held a variety of leadership positions with the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (including Chair of the Policy Board of Directors for the Board on Agriculture Assembly), the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, and regional research committees. Jay served as Chair of the Executive Steering Committee for AgriNovus Indiana and on the Board of Directors of Agriculture Future of America. He is a member of the Farm Foundation Round Table where he has held a number of leadership roles.
Jay is the recipient of the Charles Murphy Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching (1996) and is listed in Purdue’s Book of Great Teachers (2003). Jay was named a University Faculty Scholar in 2000 and was the James and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics at Purdue before moving into administration. His research focuses on strategic management of food and agribusiness firms and adoption of new technology by agribusiness. Jay has worked with agribusiness managers in the areas of strategy and marketing in more than 20 countries. He received his master’s degree and doctorate in agricultural economics from Purdue University and his bachelor’s degree from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky.
Michael Boehlje
Michael Boehlje
Mike Boehlje is a distinguished professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue University. He previously held faculty and administrative positions at Iowa State University, University of Minnesota and Oklahoma State University. Mike has devoted his career to helping farm and agribusiness managers and policymakers understand the pragmatic economic and financial consequences of their decisions.
The fundamental focus of his work has been to integrate concepts of economics, finance and strategy to solve problems of farm and agribusiness managers. A major theme of Mike’s research, writing and lecturing for the past 10 years has been the importance of strategic planning and thinking, and positioning the firm for longterm viability and success. His work has attempted to extend and apply modern management concepts of systems analysis, process control, transactions cost, strategic positioning, real options and supply/value chain management to the food production, processing and distribution system.
Mike is the author or co-author of four books, nearly 300 articles, bulletins and book chapters, and more than 400 other publications. He is also a senior associate of Centrec Consulting. He is a fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association and the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association. Mike was awarded both the Hovde Award and the Morrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Land Grant Mission at Purdue University.
Courtney Bir
Courtney Bir
Courtney Bir is an assistant professor of agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University. Bir received a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Purdue University, a master’s in agricultural economics, a bachelor’s in agribusiness, and a bachelor’s in animal science from Oklahoma State University. Bir’s research combines eliciting consumer preferences for agricultural products and analysis of traditional production economics. Her work strives to determine if consumers’ preferences regarding production processes can be profitably incorporated or adopted by producers. Her extension programming focuses on farm finance and helping producers meet their operational goals. Bir also works closely with the veterinary industry to assess the status of the industry and help solve economic problems.
Brian Briggeman
Brian Briggeman
Brian Briggeman is an associate professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University and director of the Arthur Capper Cooperative Center. His research interests include agricultural finance, agribusiness and cooperative management and macroeconomic implications for U.S. agriculture. Brian has received competitive grant funding for his research, which has been published in many leading academic and trade press journals. He also provides expert commentary on agricultural and rural issues to local and national audiences. During the spring semester, Brian teaches agricultural finance to undergraduates.
Prior to joining Kansas State University, Brian was an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City where he conducted research and presented agricultural and regional issues to the community, media and bank senior officials. He holds a bachelor’s degree in agribusiness from Kansas State University, a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Texas A&M University and a doctorate in agricultural economics from Purdue University.
Brian and his wife, Sarah, live in Manhattan, KS, with their two boys. He is originally from Iuka, KS, where his parents own and operate the family farm, and his dad serves on the local co-op’s board of directors.
Nathan DeLay
Nathan DeLay
Nathan Delay is an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Colorado State University. Nathan earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Rocky Mountain College in 2009. While pursuing a career in online advertising, he earned a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Colorado Denver. Nathan graduated with a Ph.D. in Economics from Washington State University in May of 2018. With interests in production agriculture, agricultural policy and applied econometrics, Nathan spent 2018-2022 as an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University.
Nathan grew up in Denver, Colorado, but has lived all over the West. In his free time, Nathan enjoys hiking, fly fishing, and spending time with his wife Faith, and their son (Walter) and daughter (Amelia).
Recent Presentations
The Promise Of Digital Ag: Growing Your Digital Agriculture Strategy
Extension Publications
Farm Data Usage In Commercial Agriculture
Farmer Use Of Ag Data Software
Selected Research Publications
DeLay, N. D., Chouinard, H. H., Walters, C. G., & Wandschneider, P. R. (n.d.). The Market Structure for Crop Insurance Agents and the Effects on Insurance Contracts. Manuscript in preparation.
Marsh, T. L., Palmer, G. H., Mwangi, T., Vanderford, J., Otiang, E., Ochieng, L., & Njenga, K. (2018). Linking Calving Intervals to Milk Production and Household Nutrition in Kenya. Manuscript submitted for publication.
DeLay, N. D. (n.d.). The Impact of Federal Crop Insurance on the Conservation Reserve Program. Manuscript in preparation.
DeLay, N. D., Chouinard, H. H., & Wandschneider, P. R. (in press). Categorizing Agritourism Operations and Identifying Barriers to Success. Journal of Agribusiness.
Bruce Erickson
Bruce Erickson
Bruce Erickson is the agronomy education distance and outreach director, working to help deliver Purdue Agronomy’s wealth of expertise to audiences in Indiana and around the world using a variety of learning platforms. Bruce’s areas of capability include corn and soybean production, precision farming, instructional design, and competency-based education and assessment. He has experience in building technical, product-related sales and marketing programs to fulfill individual proficiency needs and to meet business goals, and then delivering through classroom, field, teleconference, CD, and Web-based platforms. Bruce is the primary instructor for Agronomy 105, an introductory course in crop production, and also teaches Fundamentals in Applied Agronomy, an online course offered by the American Society of Agronomy.
Bruce grew up on an Iowa farm, completed his undergraduate work at Iowa State University in agronomy, then began his professional career as an agronomist with DuPont Pioneer. After completing his master’s at Iowa State University in crop production and physiology and his PhD in agronomy at Purdue, Bruce joined the staff of the Purdue Department of Agronomy where he taught the introductory agronomy course and played a leading role in developing and maintaining the performance objective documents and the minimum proficiency exams for the International Certified Crop Adviser Program (CCA) and the Tri-State (Ill., Ind., Ohio) regional CCA program.
For three years, Bruce served as senior technical designer at Agri Business Group in Indianapolis (now Adayana), an agricultural consulting company. Bruce was director of cropping systems management and associate director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture, where he coordinated the Top Farmer Crop Workshop, and worked extensively with precision farming and crop production economics research and Extension. Most recently, he was the agronomic education manager for the American Society of Agronomy, responsible for and the primary instructor for Fundamentals in Applied Agronomy, the 4R Approach to Soil and Water Management, Precision Agriculture for Practitioners and a number of other educational programs. Working with subject matter experts, he was also responsible for the International CCA performance objectives and in annually developing the International CCA Exam, the India CCA Exam and the Mexico CCA Exam.
Brenna Ellison
Brenna Ellison
Dr. Brenna Ellison is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Programs Coordinator in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. Her research focuses on how consumers make food choices, including what consumers choose not to eat, or waste. She teaches undergraduate capstone courses in marketing and business strategy. Dr. Ellison earned her B.S. in Agribusiness from Abilene Christian University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Oklahoma State University. Before joining Purdue in 2021, Dr. Ellison spent nine years as a faculty member in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling around to visit different zoos with her family.
Marcos Fava Neves
Marcos Fava Neves
Marcos Fava Neves is an international expert on global agribusiness issues and a part-time professor of planning and strategy in the University of São Paulo School of Business and FGV Business School in Brazil. He graduated as an agronomic engineer from ESALQ/USP and earned his master’s degree and doctorate in management from the FEA/USP School of Economics and Business. Marcos completed postgraduate studies in European agribusiness at ESSEC-IGIA in France and in chains/networks at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. In 2013, he came to Purdue University as a visiting international professor where he maintains linkage as a permanent international adjunct professor. Since 2006, Marcos has also served as an international professor at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Marcos has specialized in strategic-planning processes for companies and food chains and serves as a board member for both public and private organizations, including more than 10 international boards over the past 15 years. In 2004, he created the “Markestrat Think Tank” with his business partners, which now employs over 60 people working on international projects, studies and research in strategic planning and management for more than 250 agri-food business organizations. Some of these projects were important in suggesting public policies for food chains that were implemented in Brazil with economic and social impacts.
In 2008, Marcos became CEO of Brazil’s second-largest biofuel holding company, a position he occupied until returning to the University of São Paulo and Markestrat in 2009. He has also advised over 30 doctorate dissertations and master’s theses. Marcos has helped to provide around 1,200 undergraduate degrees in business administration by teaching approximately 120 courses to undergraduate students at the University of São Paulo.
Strongly focused on supplying simple and effective methods for business, Marcos has published more than 100 articles in international journals and has been an author and editor of 63 books by 10 different publishers in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, South Africa, Singapore, Netherlands, China, the United Kingdom and the United States. He is also a regular contributor for China Daily Newspaper and has written two case studies for Harvard Business School, one for Purdue and five for Pensa/University of São Paulo. Marcos is recognized as the Brazilian academic with the largest number of international publications about orange juice and sugar cane chains and one of the top three most cited Brazilian authors in the area of food and agribusiness. He has reached more than 5,000 citations in the Google Scholar index.
Marcos is an active speaker and has received 150 recognitions from Brazilian and international organizations. He is considered a “Fellow” of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association.
Coming from a family of farmers, Marcos is a worldwide defender of agriculture and farmer’s roles in the development of society. Together with his parents, Marcos is one of the creators and maintainers of Mucapp, a non-governmental organization that has built more than 450 houses for families in Brazil facing unfavorable conditions over the last two decades. He and his wife, Camilla, have three children: Beatriz, Julia and Cecilia. Marcos also enjoys sports and classic cars.
Chad Fiechter
Chad Fiechter
Chad Fiechter joined Purdue University in the fall of 2023 as an assistant professor of agribusiness finance. Fiechter’s research interests include the financing of agricultural production, farm/agribusiness management, and agricultural policy. He is specifically interested in how information affects farm-level decision-making, such as the financing, producing, and marketing decisions of agricultural commodities.
Justin Funk
Justin Funk
Justin Funk is the managing partner of Agri Studies, a firm based out of Guelph, Ontario. For over 20 years he has been dedicated to helping agribusiness organizations improve their ability to create value for customers through education, marketing research, and strategic planning.
Justin is an experienced educator teaching in both the academic and industry classroom. He has developed and delivered sales educational programs for numerous agribusiness organizations spanning all areas of the industry. He has taught Marketing Strategy in the University of Guelph’s MBA in Agriculture, Senior Undergraduate Marketing Strategy in the Department of Consumer Studies, and Professional Selling in the Diploma Program in Agriculture. He currently serves as affiliated faculty teaching executive programs at the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue University in Indiana.
Justin is also a marketing research practitioner, leading Agri Studies’ marketing research activities along with his new venture, RealAgristudies in partnership with the ag-media company Real Agriculture. His areas of expertise focus on Pricing, Segmentation, Distribution, Branding & Positioning, Demand Estimation, and Buyer Behavior.
From 2009 – 2018 Justin served as the National Chairman for the Canadian Agri Marketing Association (CAMA) and is a founding director of the of the Canadian Agri-Business Education Foundation (CABEF). In 2012, Justin was recognized by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in the United States with the Professional Development Award of Excellence and was recognized locally as being a member of the City of Guelph’s Distinguished 40 Under 40. In November of 2019 he was named the Canadian Agri-Marketing Association’s Agri-Marketer of the Year.
Keith Halperin
Keith Halperin
Keith Halperin is a visiting professor and principal at KGH Leadership (former senior partner at Korn Ferry). Mr. Halperin founded and architected the worldwide training practice area at PDI Ninth House. He has been designing and conducting programs to enhance the leadership skills of managers and executives worldwide. In addition to his experience at Korn Ferry via PDI Ninth House, Mr. Halperin served as the human resource planning and development manager for Honeywell’s corporate offices. His industry expertise includes consumer goods, financial services, life sciences, high technology, and transportation sectors. He is also an adjunct professor at Macalester College and St. Mary’s University.
Dr. Halperin earned a doctoral degree in clinical psychlogy from the University of Kansas and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Drew University. He has been a member of the American Psychological Association, the Minnesota Professionals for Psychology Applied at Work, and Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Mr. Halperin has served on the board of directors for Instructional Systems Association and the Illusion Theater.
Pete Hammett
Pete Hammett
Pete Hammett is a visiting professor with over 25 years in Talent Management ranging from organization culture, employee engagement, leadership development, team effectiveness, change leadership and coaching. Prior to starting Hammett Consulting, Pete was the head of Human Resources & Talent Management at OGE Energy Corporation–a regulated electric utility whose 2,400 employees serve more than 800,000 customers in Oklahoma and Arkansas. While at OGE, he developed Talent Strategies, which achieved a 6.5% improvement in employee engagement and a 20% increase in the pipeline of “ready now” leaders at the executive & manager levels.
Pete held the position of Director of Client Services & Sr. Faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership. CCL is the world’s foremost provider of executive education. Pete’s business experience also encompasses several key positions at American Express, including VP Operations & Technology where he was in charge of Relationship Management and Business Process Innovation. While at Amex, Pete served as Director of New Product Development where he was responsible for building the business & relationship management framework for Amex’s co-branding and affinity products.
Pete had a distinguished career in Aerospace and Defense where he designed the technical platform responsible for allocating spacesuits to Shuttle flight crews. Pete also participated in developing the infrastructure needed to manufacture the XM40 gas masks used in Desert Storm. Pete holds a doctorate of strategic leadership from Regent University, a master’s degree in business administration from Wilmington University and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Wesley University. He is certified to administer and coach multiple psychometric assessments, personality assessments, 360s, Emotional Intelligence, Change & Influence. He has published many articles on leadership, and his book, “Unbalanced Influence”, focuses on the myths and paradoxes of effective executive leadership.
Valerie Kilders
Valerie Kilders
Dr. Kilders research leverages food marketing, agribusiness and experimental economics to better assist agricultural producers and stakeholders in the marketing system. She aims to increase our understanding of how consumers and other members of the agricultural supply chain make (food) choices and how these choices impact the food system, agribusinesses, and policies. Among other things, Dr. Kilders current research agenda focuses on two empirical themes: 1) consumer demand for food away from home and its impact in terms of health and nutrition (FAFH) and 2) emerging consumption trends and consumer acceptance of new food technologies.
Meilin Ma
Bobby Martens
Bobby Martens
Bobby Martens is the Iowa Institute of Cooperatives Endowed Professor of Economics and Associate Professor of Economics. Previous to joining the Economics Department, Martens was an Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management in the Debbie and Jerry Ivy College of Business, also at Iowa State University. Bobby earned his Ph.D. from Purdue University and MS and BS degrees in Agricultural Economics from North Dakota State University. Martens’ current position is 55 percent extension, focusing on Cooperatives and the supply chain in which they operate (agriculture and food supply chains). His primary research interests are food and agricultural supply chains. Engaged scholarship – working directly with companies to produce industry-relevant academic scholarship – is a central theme in his research. Examples of research includes supply chain design in the bio-economy, the effects of rate age and shipper practices on transportation rates, grain traceability, and a decision tool for small-scale African seed entrepreneurs. Martens published articles in top supply chain journals such as Decision Sciences Journal and Journal of Business Logistics and in Ag-Business journals such as the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics. In addition to his work in Extension, he is involved in Iowa State University’s Masters in Seed Business and Technology program and is a member of the Iowa State University Executive MBA teaching team. The E-MBA is focused on Agriculture, Food and Biosystems. Prior to earning his Ph.D., Martens worked as an account manager at Schneider Logistics and in product management at the Case Corporation. Bobby enjoys spending time with his wife and four children and operating a small farm near Ames.
James Mintert
James Mintert
James Mintert is a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and serves as director of the Center for Commercial Agriculture. Jim joined Purdue’s faculty in 2009 and worked as the assistant director of Extension for agriculture and natural resources before taking on his director responsibilities at the center.
Prior to his time at Purdue, Jim was a professor and Extension state leader in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University for 23 years. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University and a doctorate from the University of Missouri.
Over the course of his career, Jim has received numerous awards, including Outstanding Extension Program Awards from both the American Agricultural Economics Association and the Western Agricultural Economics Association, in addition to the American Agricultural Economics Association’s Premier Forecaster Award for his livestock production and price forecasts. Jim is also the author of more than 200 publications focusing on the economics of the livestock industry.
Carson Reeling
Carson Reeling
Dr. Carson Reeling is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. His research is in the area of environmental economics with a focus on designing policies to manage nonpoint source pollution from agricultural lands. Carson is interested in enhancing environmental and financial sustainability of production agriculture through an understanding of producers’ participation in voluntary water quality and carbon trading programs.
Before joining the faculty at Purdue, Carson previously worked at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. He earned his Ph.D. in Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University and his bachelor’s degree in Economics and Spanish from the University of San Diego. Carson grew up in Bishop, CA and moved to Purdue with his wife, Sheree, and his daughters Charlotte and Stella.
Luciano Thomé e Castro
Luciano Thomé e Castro
Luciano Castro is an international affiliated professor in Food and Agribusiness Management at Purdue University. He has served as a marketing and sales professor for over 15 years, most recently as a clinical associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue and a faculty member in the Business Administration Department at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil.
As executive director of Markestrat in Brazil, Luciano worked as a consultant on projects in the marketing and sales area in the crop protection, seed, irrigation, machinery, fertilizer and cattle industries covering Brazilian, as well as other Latin American Countries and the US agribusiness markets. He is the author of several marketing and sales books and peer reviewed articles in academic journals and case studies.
Luciano earned his doctorate from the University of Sao Paulo in 2008, during which time he came to Purdue on a visiting scholar appointment where he wrote a PhD thesis on ag-input distribution channels and the comparison between America and Brazil. He also earned his master’s degree in sales management and bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Sao Paulo with an extension in Germany at the University of Kiel in 2004. Luciano resides in Brazil with his wife, Virginia, and their children, Lais and Natalia.
Nicole Olynk Widmar
Nicole Olynk Widmar
Nicole Widmar is Interim Department Head and Professor of Agricultural Economics. Her teaching, research and Extension activities focus on farm business management and production economics. Nicole strives to conduct applied research that informs decision making on commercial agriculture operations. She is interested in applied work that links farm management with the biological components of on-farm production. Her work incorporates both the economic outcomes of a decision and the uncertainties or efficiencies that arise from the biological process underlying the production process.
In recent years, Nicole has developed a significant portfolio of work aimed at understanding consumer’s perceptions of livestock-derived food products. She has employed her findings surrounding consumer demand for product attributes in various agricultural production models. Nicole conducts inter-disciplinary research that provides support for on-farm decision making regarding technology adoption, analysis of producer costs and benefits associated with alternative production processes, support for management of purchased inputs, and insight into the implications of changing consumer demand and preferences for agricultural producers. Nicole completed her M.S. and Ph.D. in agricultural economics at Michigan State University. Prior to her graduate work, Nicole completed her B.S. degree in Animal Science at Cornell University. Her graduate research focused on the responses of agricultural producers to changing consumer demand for production process attributes.
