2024 Evaluator Conference

President & CEO | Animal Agriculture Alliance

Hannah Thompson-Weeman is president and CEO of the Animal Agriculture Alliance, a nonprofit working to safeguard the future of animal agriculture and its value to society by bridging the communication gap between the farm and food communities. In her role, Hannah provides strategic direction to the organization and oversees its operations along with engaging key stakeholders about the value of animal agriculture and providing guidance to the animal agriculture community about managing various issues, including animal rights extremist activity and campaigns.

Hannah joined the Alliance in 2014 and has served in various leadership roles involving communications, issues management and strategic engagement. Hannah’s passion for the future of animal agriculture and expertise in farm security, crisis management and effective communication strategies have made her a sought-after spokesperson, speaker and columnist. In her time with the Alliance she has given hundreds of media interviews and presentations to audiences across the U.S. and around the world. Hannah’s work has been recognized with the NextGen Award (2021) and the Public Relations Professional Development Award (2019) from the National AgriMarketing Association, the Young Alumni Award (2020) from The Ohio State University Department of Agricultural Communications, Education and Leadership and the Outstanding Alumni Award (2018) from the National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow.

David J. Ellis Chair in Antimicrobial Resistance and Large Animal Clinical Sciences | Michigan State University

Dr. Ruegg currently holds the David J. Ellis Chair in Antimicrobial Resistance and Large Animal Clinical Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University and is focused on research and outreach that help to improve animal health and farm sustainability. She previously served as chair of the Dept. of Animal Science at MSU and spent 20 years as a professor and extension milk quality specialist in the Dept. of Dairy Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Dr. Ruegg has academic degrees from both Michigan State University and the University of California, Davis. She has had varied professional experiences including private veterinary practice, academic positions at both Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the College of Veterinary Medicine at MSU and corporate technical service. She maintains a research program focused on ensuring antibiotic stewardship on farms by optimizing antibiotic usage and identifying animal, environmental and pathogen factors that can be manipulated to reduce disease risk. Dr. Ruegg is active in industry organizations and is a past-president of the National Mastitis Council. Throughout her career she has received a number of awards for research, extension and international outreach programs and has published numerous articles for professional and lay publications.

Post-Doctoral Associate | University of Minnesota

MaryGrace Erickson is a postdoctoral associate at the University of Minnesota committed to developing pathways for sustainable dairy production. Her recent work focused on the effects of protein nutrition on productivity and environmental outputs from lactating cows, laboratory methods for estimating greenhouse gas emissions from stored manure, and documentation of sustainability transitions through whole-farm assessments.

Training and Talent Development for Dairy Workers | Alltech T²R Program

Jorge Delgado leads the Alltech Training, Talent Development and Retention (T2R) Program as part of the Alltech On-Farm Support Program. Delgado worked to create this program in 2018, bringing his expertise to help dairy producers with people management practices, herd health, milk quality, calf management, and on-farm protocols.

Prior to this role, Delgado led the Dairy Training Program at Elanco from 2014-2018. Before his work at Elanco, Delgado worked at Alltech as a Dairy Specialist, bringing with him more than 10 years of experience as a herd manager on multiple dairy farms.

Delgado is originally from Ecuador, South America, and comes from a family of dairy farmers. He received his B.S. in Agriculture and Dairy Science from E.A.R.T.H University in Costa Rica and returned to Ecuador where he worked in the dairy industry representing a genetic company in consulting, sales and training until moving to the U.S. in 2002. Delgado currently lives with his family in Minneapolis, MN.

Media Relations Specialist | American Farm Bureau Federation

Bailey Corwine serves as the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Media Relations Specialist, where she coordinates interviews between national, state and local media and AFBF’s team of experts as well as producing the twice-weekly radio spot called Newsline. She has been with AFBF since September 2020.

Additionally, Bailey serves as the communications lead for AFBF’s mental health initiative, Farm State of Mind. She helps manage Farm State of Mind resources, develop the campaign’s messaging and strategically plan for the initiative’s future.

Prior to joining AFBF, she worked in the state legislature in her home state of Kansas and on a campaign for the United States Senate.

Bailey graduated with distinction from the University of Arkansas in 2019 with a degree in Agricultural Communications. In her free time, she enjoys live music, the outdoors and adventuring with her two dogs, Duck and Goose.

Associate Professor | Colorado State University

Dr. Jason Lombard is an Associate Professor at Colorado State University where he received his doctorate in veterinary medicine. Dr. Lombard practiced dairy cattle medicine in Wisconsin for nearly 10 years before returning to CSU and completing his master’s degree in epidemiology. During this time, he worked for USDA’s National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS). He coordinated multiple National studies, primarily focused on the dairy industry. While with USDA, he also participated on an Incident Management Team and was deployed for multiple cattle and poultry diseases during his 20-year federal career.

Lombard’s research interests include infectious disease epidemiology and population health, with a focus on cattle diseases. His most recent work has involved investigating bovine tuberculosis outbreaks and bovine leukemia virus-associated lymphosarcoma in beef and dairy cattle. These disease investigations and research have taken a One Health approach with collaboration with public health officials and infectious disease physicians.

Agolin and Carbon Lead | Alltech, US Dairy Business

Martha joined Alltech, Inc., based out of their Global HQ in Kentucky, USA, in May of 2023. She received her BS at Austin Peay State University, Masters in Dairy Science from The University of Georgia, and her MBA from Strayer University.

She leads Alltech’s Carbon Market approach and commercialization of Agolin ® in NA.  She has spent her career working with large production dairy operations in the US with a strong background in dairy nutrition and consulting.  Alltech’s approach to Sustainability starts with profitability of the dairy farm.  As we advocate for our environment, it is done with a keen focus on helping operations become more profitable and viable for the long-term.  More than twenty years of experience working to implement change and improvement in the industry, at the farm-gate level, have been instrumental in her current role.

Director of Organizational Development | Alltech Feed Division

Tom Koch currently serves as Director of Organizational Development for Alltech Feed Division, working to help organizations, employees, and customers across the globe be more successful. Koch received his Master’s degree in Agricultural Education from the University of Illinois and taught high school agriculture classes for three years.

He started with Hubbard in 1991 and held a variety of product and marketing management positions at Hubbard and continued with the company after its acquisition by Ridley in 1997 and Alltech’s acquisition of Ridley in 2015. Koch is a certified facilitator for the Counselor Sales Person program through Wilson Learning and DISC Behavior Styles through Target Consulting.

Tom Koch is one of eight children who was reared on a diversified crop and livestock farm in west-central Illinois. He is married with four children and enjoys spending time with his ten delightfully rambunctious grandchildren.