Describe how your background and qualifications would help you be an effective leader of AMSA.

I’ve been very fortunate to have several experiences that will assist me in a leadership role on the AMSA Board of Directors.   Having served as a director and as the board president, I was given opportunities to understand and participate in developing and executing our strategic plans.   I’ve also been a part of multiple not-for-profit boards, and each has given me experiences that I can apply to this opportunity.   Each board that I have served on has involved making a variety of hard choices regarding the organizations’ mission, objectives, and resources.   AMSA will be faced with similar strategic choices going forward.  The experiences that I have had, both previously with the AMSA BOD and other not-for-profit boards, has prepared me for the work of being in a leadership role on the AMSA BOD.

In my work at Cargill, I am very familiar with the long term needs of this industry.  I have a set of experiences that will help me to guide the organization into how we can best serve this industry and its stakeholders.    This experience will allow me to bring an informed perspective into the type of work that AMSA should take on in the coming years. 

 What is your vision for AMSA in ten years?

This is a hard question.   In an environment that changes as rapidly as ours does, to think about what is relevant in 10 years is sometimes difficult to do.   However, it is not hard to say that investments in science, investments in people and investments in credible and honest issues communication will still be relevant.  To that end, what does AMSA look like in ten years?   I will answer that in the three areas cited above:

1. Investments in Science.   I don’t know that I see AMSA being a funder of scientific research on a large extent.   However, I do so a place where we are looked to help guide research priorities.  I think that we can and will play a larger role in defining priorities and helping to facilitate the most effective partnerships possible.   It is imperative that we move faster as we answer basic and applied research questions.  AMSA can be the organization to help align research priorities, prevent duplication of efforts and enable effective public/private partnerships to speed the discovery process.
2. Investments in People:  This will still be core to AMSA.   My vision is that AMSA will be the predominant resource when it comes to training and preparing individuals for roles in this industry.   We will be the most widely utilized resource, not just in the university classroom, but at the industry training level and at the high school level.   We will be enabling instruction and teaching beyond core land grant colleges and will make it possible for meat science instruction to be taking place at colleges and universities that previously had not considered such instruction.  
3. Investments in credible and honest issues communication.   AMSA will be the most respected resource when issues are debated whether in the halls of Congress or the court of public opinion.   AMSA will be the source sought out by congressional staffers and reports at the New York Times when they need a credible and unbiased resource to help navigate the technical aspects of contentious issues.   
   

Thank you for consideration of these comments.   If elected to serve, I will do everything that I can to help enable AMSA to meet its immediate and long-term organizational goals.