Board of Directors

Carmen Black operates Sundog Farm and Local Harvest CSA near Solon, Iowa. She farms collaboratively with a committed farm team, and they raise vegetables for more than 200 families that are Community Supported Agriculture members. They rotationally graze lamb, goat and laying hens that are direct-marketed locally. Carmen grew up near Solon and returned to Iowa to farm after living out of state for a few years. She worked for Susan Jutz, founder of Local Harvest CSA, and purchased her farm (formerly known as ZJ Farm) and CSA business in 2016.

Tim Youngquist farms corn and soybeans on his family's heritage farm near Kiron, Iowa, along with his wife, Mandy, and his parents, Dennis and Ann Youngquist. He has overseen the creation of buffer strips using native prairie in fields and riparian zones on his family land. Tim also grows and harvests prairie for native plant propagation. Tim serves as the farmer liaison for Iowa State University's STRIPS program, where he helps farmers and landowners implement prairie strips on their farmland.

Jon Bakehouse farms with his wife Tina, son Anderson and parents near Hastings, Iowa. The Bakehouses raise corn and soybeans and have a cow-calf herd. As the fifth generation farming his family's land, Jon has conducted PFI on-farm research for over seven years and unofficial field trials his entire farming career.

Alec Amundson and his wife, Rachel Amundson, run Green Country Farms in Osage, Iowa. They raise 2,300 acres of corn, soybeans, oats and rye, and manage CRP and buffer strips.

Erica Lydolph​ and her husband, Andrew, own Cedar Creek Grain & Livestock Co. in Stockport, Iowa, where they raise corn, soybeans and confinement pigs. Erica also works as an agricultural loan officer at Washington State Bank, bringing more than 15 years of experience in agricultural finance and farm business management.

Kristine Lang manages a local food and cut flower research and extension program through South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota, where she is an assistant professor and extension consumer horticulture specialist. Kristine earned her doctorate in horticulture and sustainable agriculture from Iowa State University.

Matt Liebman of Ames, Iowa, is a retired faculty member from the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University. Matt's research, teaching and outreach work focused on ways to use ecological processes to create farming systems that are productive, profitable, resilient and environmentally sound.

Shaffer Ridgeway lives and farms in Waterloo, Iowa, and is the first Black person to serve on PFI's board of directors. Originally from Alabama, he is a district conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. In 2019, he and his wife Madelyn established their farm, Southern Goods, with an emphasis on growing Southern vegetables for Midwesterners. He markets through direct marketing, wholesale and the We Arose Co-op.

Margaret Smith and her husband, Doug Alert, operate Ash Grove Farm, a diversified, certified organic crop and livestock operation near Hampton, Iowa. Margaret is a forage agronomist for Albert Lea Seed with previous experience working for ISU Extension and Outreach and the ISU Department of Agronomy. Margaret and Doug are also PFI on-farm research cooperators and lifetime PFI members. In 2019, they received PFI's Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award.

Natasha Wilson farms with her parents and sister at West Fork Farmstead near West Chester, Iowa. Since Natasha returned to the farm five years ago, the family has been transforming a conventional farm operation into a pasture-based, regenerative farm to produce delicious, high-quality food for their community. West Fork Farmstead produces grass-fed beef, pastured chicken, pork raised outdoors, pastured chicken and duck eggs and raw honey.

Larry Kallem of Ames, Iowa, is a founding member of PFI. In the midst of the farm crisis, Larry, along with Dick and Sharon Thompson, worked to organize PFI, a group of farmers eager to work together testing novel solutions to the pressing economic, social and ecological farming challenges of the time.