Passion For Farmers, Their Values Central to My Core

Twenty years ago, I came to the national dairy checkoff to temporarily cover the maternity leave of a senior marketing communications executive, and I never left.

Today, it is my great honor to be its newly named CEO.

Over the last two decades, I’ve worked with every facet of the checkoff and its partners across the dairy industry. One aspect of that experience remains constant and it’s why I stay – my passion for supporting dairy farmers and the work they do to feed people. Their values of hard work and humility are central to the core of who I am and reflect how I will lead the checkoff in this new role.

Like dairy farmers, checkoff staff are careful stewards of what was built by the generations before. I want to express deep appreciation to Tom Gallagher, who not only built Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) but put his faith in me to help develop and deliver on his vision. His commitment and foresight for the past 30 years has positioned dairy to achieve great things going forward as we build on this legacy to create the next-generation checkoff and a prosperous future.

We operate in an increasingly complex global environment, so new solutions are required, and hard choices will be made on how to efficiently invest on behalf of farmers and importers. I have spent the early days as CEO looking closely at how we can build this next chapter of the checkoff’s history, while staying rooted in the needs of farmers and importers and guided by opportunities for dairy to succeed at a global level.

Working closely with the chairs of DMI, the United Dairy Industry Association and the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, as well as the strong bench of next-line checkoff leadership at global, national and local levels, we will focus on three immediate priorities:

• Stronger integration across dairy checkoff organizations; while each has its own mission, the power is in the whole working together to leverage talent and resources.
• Transparent articulation of the most important jobs to be done by the checkoff to grow dairy sales and increase trust domestically and around the world.
• Finding new efficiencies to maximize working dollars and the return on every dollar spent.

To that end, and with a bias for action, I will take tangible steps on these priorities to create impact now, next and into the future. Over the next few months, I will:

• Participate in a nationwide farmer and industry listening tour: Listen to farmers to understand their concerns, their challenges and what their checkoff can do for them. This feedback is crucial to our path forward together. I will strengthen my existing relationships and forge new ones with farmers and others in the industry, and I expect the same from every leader representing the checkoff.
• Conduct an immediate review of all checkoff operations and expenditures: Ensure we go into 2022 and future planning as efficiently as possible.
• Evaluate our priorities: Recommend to the board of directors those priorities that we should emphasize to shape dairy’s current and future success, and those things we can stop doing to ensure we are laser-focused on what will have the greatest impact.

While I take full accountability for this mantle, a transition to a new CEO depends on the strength of the staff and leaders who support me, and I am fortunate to be surrounded by many talented and committed people and farmer leaders. Together, we will ensure a smooth transition, while continuing to deliver the results that farmers and importers expect and deserve.

The opportunity belongs to all of us who believe in dairy’s power to fuel the world, and my promise is that I will listen, be transparent, and make the best decisions possible to continue to earn dairy’s place in homes, on tables and in communities around the globe, today and in the future.

To learn more about your national dairy checkoff, visit www.USDairy.com or send a request to join our Facebook group. To reach us directly, send an email to TalkToTheCheckoff@dairy.org.