Farmers from 12 states graduated from the 2018-19 American Soybean Association (ASA) Leadership At Its Best program this week in Washington, D.C. The Leadership At Its Best program is sponsored by Syngenta and develops leadership, communication and advocacy skills in farmers who have already shown potential to be strong leaders through the positions they hold on their state soybean association boards. This select group of farmer-leaders participated in the first part of the Leadership At Its Best training this past summer in Raleigh, N.C.

“Growers from across the country are learning from one another, while also enhancing their advocacy skills to stand up and answer the call for American agriculture,” said Andrew Lauver, industry affairs manager for Syngenta.

This week, the participants attended sessions where they had the opportunity to learn more about important issues and topics for the agriculture industry, such as trade, gene editing, and implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill. They also received training focused on how to become stronger advocates in Washington on issues important to important to soybean farmers. The class concluded their program with a day of Hill visits with their state associations.

Leadership At Its Best Program participants are nominated by their state soybean association. This year’s class participants included: Jeff Frank, Auburn, IA; Brett Niebling, Highland, KS; Ben Furnish, Paris, KY; Dan Keenan, Merrill, MI; Dane Diehl, Butler, MO; Doug Bartek, Wahoo, NE; Angela Berben, Pantego, NC; Spencer Endrud, Buxton, ND; Andy Stickel, Bowling Green, OH; Jeff Thompson, Colton, SD; Rob Holman, Union City, TN; and Steve Trebiatowski, Amherst, WI.

ASA appreciates the continued support provided by Syngenta that makes this valuable leadership program possible. ASA will begin reaching out to state soybean associations this Spring to start collecting nominations for the 2020 Leadership At Its Best class. For more information, contact Michelle Hummel in the ASA office at mhummel@soy.org.