Sen. Joe Bolkcom serves on the SILT Advisory Council.
Sen. Bolkcom is a Democrat from the Iowa City area. He currently serves as Senate Majority Whip and chair of the Ways & Means Committee, chairman of Progressive States Network and member of FEMA’s national advisory council, environmentalist and former county supervisor.
Dorrance Brezina is founder and CEO of Developers Realty Group and an advocate on behalf of agri-communities.
Penny Brown Huber of Ames serves on SILT’s Advisory Council.
Penny Brown Huber is the Executive Director of Prairie Rivers of Iowa RC&D and CEO of Iowa Choice Harvest. She has worked in not-profits most of her professional career from project development, to fundraising, to crafting and building several not-for-profits. She has extensive experience in strategic planning and business planning. In 2008, Penny was named one of 80 women leaders in the country by The Whitehouse Project.
Long concerned about the loss of family farms and properly grown food made New York artist, Katharine Butler, decide to take a drive across the country in 2009, only to find that the situation was worse than she imagined. For mile after mile she saw the Midwest being populated by Big Ag, with hardly a farmstead in sight. She became one of SILT’s earliest supporters at the Slow Money National Gathering in 2014, She advises SILT based on her board experience with other environmental nonprofits, including the National Young Farmers Coalition and Riverkeeper. She is a trustee of the Donald C. Brace Foundation.
Larry Cleverly farms 220 acres outside of Mingo and was a staple at the Des Moines Farmers Market for 20 years until 2016. Larry fought the Iowa Dept. of Transportation over 59 acres it took from his farm for a new highway, gathering more than 4,000 signatures on petitions.
Kamyar Enshayan is a founding member of SILT and Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Education at the University of Northern Iowa.
Cornelia Flora of Ames serves on the Advisory Council of SILT.
Cornelia Butler Flora, PhD Cornell University, is the Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Agriculture and Life Sciences, Iowa State University and Research Scientist, Kansas State University. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and past president of the Rural Sociological Society, the Community Development Society, and the Society for Food, Agriculture and Human Values, she has taught, done research, and worked with action programs across the US, Latin America, and parts of Africa and Asia. She recently completed a Fulbright award teaching with Jan Flora at the University of Cordoba in Spain.
Jan Flora is Professor Emeritus at Iowa State and Research Professor of Sociology at Kansas State University. He was Program Advisor for Agriculture and Rural Development for the Ford Foundation for Spanish-speaking South America. He held the Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems at the University of Minnesota. His research analyzes the relationship of community capitals to community and sustainable development. He is a grassroots activist in A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy (AMOS), focusing on immigration reform and affordable housing in Ames. He serves on the board of the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. He grew up on a farm in Kansas.
Jason Grimm of Williamsburg serves on SILT’s Advisory Council.
Mr. Grimm is a food planner for Iowa Valley RC&D and a farmer at Grimm Family Farm.
SILT Adviser Bob Hartwig is Legal Counsel with the Iowa Bankers Association. Bob has been with the IBA since graduating from the Drake Law School in 1997. His responsibilities include lobbying on behalf of the IBA and its members, providing on-site and educational seminars for IBA member banks, general in-house legal duties and litigation support. He has an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Business from Iowa State University. From 1989 until 1994, he was a residential real estate lender at First Federal Savings Bank of the Midwest in Storm Lake, Iowa. Bob is a member of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association and the Agricultural, Commercial, and Real Estate Sections of the Iowa State Bar Association.
John Ikerd of Fairfield serves on SILT’s Advisory Council.
Dr. Ikerd is Professor Emeritus in Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Missouri, and the author of many books including “Crisis and Opportunity: Sustainability in American Agriculture” and “Sustainable Capitalism.”
Fred Kirschenmann of Ames serves on SILT’s Advisory Council.
Fred is a Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University and as the President of the Board at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Picantico Hills, NY. He also provides management oversight for his 1,800 acre organic farm in South Central North Dakota.
Erv Klaas of Ames serves on SILT’s Advisory Council.
Erwin Klaas is professor emeritus of animal ecology, Iowa State University, a former leader of the Iowa Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and currently serves as an assistant commissioner for the Story County Soil and Water Conservation District.
Lucie Laurian of Iowa City serves on SILT’s Advisory Council.
Lucie is an Associate Professor with a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2001. Her areas of interest include: The interactions between urban populations and their environments, the implementation of local environmental plans, public participation and the linkages between planning and public health.
Jean Lloyd-Jones of Iowa City serves on SILT’s Advisory Council.
Jean served as Iowa State Representative from 1979-1986 and Iowa Senator from 1987-1994 representing the Iowa City area. She is a founding member of the Johnson County Heritage Trust (Now Bur Oak Trust) and of 50/50 in 2020.
Denise O’Brien is a lifelong organic farmer, leader in the fight to save the family farm, founder of the Women Food and Agriculture Network and a co-founder of the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust. She served on the SILT founding board and one more term before stepping off to run for State Representative from her district.
David Osterberg of Mt. Vernon serves on SILT’s Advisory Council.
David is a lifelong environmental activist, founder Iowa Policy Project. Clinical Professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Iowa and former Iowa State Representative 1983-1994.
Joe Pietruszynski serves on SILT’s Advisory Council.
Joe is vice president of land development at Hubbell Homes, Iowa’s largest real estate developer. Currently, Joe is overseeing the development and management of more than thirty commercial, industrial, and residential developments, including plans for Iowa’s first development incorporating an organic farm.
Harn Soper is a Century Farmer and founder of Sustainable Farm Partners, private equity group purchasing conventional Iowa farmland and converting it to organic farmland. Investment opportunities include both group and individually tailored partnerships.
Mary Swander of Ames serves on SILT’s Advisory Council.
Mary is Poet Laureate of Iowa, a local food activist and playwright currently touring Iowa with “Map of My Kingdom” about the challenges of intergenerational farm transfer.
Dave is an associate scientist in the Department of Economics, Iowa State University and a lecturer at the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Iowa. He served on the SILT Board from 2015-2018.
He is a community economics research and education specialist. His work centers on regional and statewide economic analysis, technical assistance, and projects that support the College of Agriculture and Life Science’s efforts in community development and in providing community economics education services to the public. His research and service categories include regional industrial studies and evaluations, economic development research and technical assistance, input-output (economic impact) studies, benefit-cost analysis, fiscal impact research, public finance and tax policy analysis, community change and worker mobility dynamics, and public project evaluation. In recent years he has done a significant amount of work on both biofuels and local foods economic impacts.
David has worked at ISU since 1989. Before that he worked at the University of Iowa from 1981 to 1989. He is a South Dakota native, a veteran of the U.S. Army, and known to run very long distances for no good reason.
Francis Thicke of Fairfield serves on SILT’s Advisory Council.
Francis is owner of Radiance Dairy, producing local organic milk products for more than 30 years, a former candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and member National Organic Standards Board. He holds a PhD in soil science.
Michele Traver is a founding member of SILT and an associate with Thrivent Financial Services in Cedar Rapids. Thrivent is a fraternal benefit society, a membership organization of Christians where members are owners.
Tom Wahl was born and raised in Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University in 1984 with a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology. For the next 16 years he worked for various government agencies in wildlife research, wildlife management, forestry, and park management. He and his wife, Kathy Dice, bought a farm in Louisa County in 1986. Tom quit his off-farm job in January 2001 to work on the farm full time. Tom and Kathy grow high value tree crops including chestnuts, heartnuts, persimmons, pawpaws, honey berries, and also operate a small tree nursery. In 2015 Tom and Kathy received the Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award from Practical Farmers of Iowa. They have two adult children, James and Theresa.
Paul Willis partnered with Niman Ranch 1995 to expand humane pork production for a national market. The Willis family remains active in managing the company which was sold to Perdue in 2015.