It takes a true village to keep the wheels moving within ASA’s WISHH program. WISHH has team members stationed throughout the countries in which its projects are brought to life, but there are plenty of “WISHH’ers” who work full time in ASA’s St. Louis headquarters. We’d like to introduce you to our domestic team: 

Gena Perry: As WISHH’s executive director, Gena leads the strategic trajectory of WISHH’s market development and long-term trade opportunities for U.S. soy. She also works to build and maintain relationships with USDA, the U.S. soybean organizations and others working in global agriculture trade and development. Gena enjoys taking farmers who are the brand ambassadors for U.S. soy around the world to see WISHH’s global work on the ground and meet the strategic partners who are current and future customers of U.S. soy. Perry began her WISHH journey in 2019 as project director for WISHH’s USDA Food for Progress poultry project and was promoted to executive director in 2022. 

Vickie Wilks: Vickie is in her 17th year with ASA/WISHH. She is responsible for administrative supervision, program management, and budgetary and financial oversight. Vickie handles client and stakeholder needs, supervises the compilation and submission of various reports, reviews contracts, monitors funding regulation compliance, and creates and monitors the budget.

Eric DeMerit: 

Eric has been with ASA/WISHH for 13 years. He is responsible for compliance, logistics and other organizational matters for WISHH programming. Eric administers activities related to consultant contracting and payments, travel logistics for staff, consultants and trade teams, expense reconciliations, QSSB (Qualified State Soybean Board/state soy checkoff) contracting and invoicing, government and non-government project agreement processing, government agreements, and other program related activities. His role also includes oversight of WISHH’s program coordinator.

James Bernhardt: James is responsible for managing WISHH’s monitoring and evaluation plans. He works with regional directors to distribute surveys that collect data about the organization’s key performance indicators. James supervises five staff in Cambodia and works closely with project leadership to design and implement strategies for success. He also conducts research about the impact of WISHH programming in developing and emerging markets.

Marypat Corbett: 

Marypat oversees the building of new U.S. soy protein trade within the Central American and Dominican Republic food and beverage industries. She also serves as the ASA/WISHH liaison to QSSBs and represents WISHH on the Soy Nutrition Institute Global board of directors. Marypat coordinates special projects with internal and external teams. 

Chris Slemp: Chris, along with colleague Josh Neiderman, manages WISHH’s Africa Division. He leads the portfolio of market development projects throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Chris works to build demand for soy through the implementation of value chain projects targeting the food, poultry and aquaculture sectors across 16 countries.  

Alan Poock: As the Asia division director, Alan promotes U.S. soy in developing and emerging Asian markets in the animal feed, aquaculture and human food sectors. With more than 20 years of experience working in Asia, Alan often works in markets where he witnesses global trade from the ground up.

Josh Neiderman: Josh, along with Chris Slemp, leads WISHH’s Africa Division. He works with partners throughout sub-Saharan Africa to raise awareness of the competitive advantages of U.S. soy products in human diets and as a functional feed ingredient for the poultry and aquaculture sectors. Josh acts as a liaison to U.S. government officials at foreign posts as well as several U.S.-based commodity cooperator groups implementing similar programming, and he is a key contact for monetization programs related to the Africa Division. Josh also monitors trends and developments on the continent.  

Leila Payer: Leila is one of our newest team members, joining in 2022. She communicates with WISHH staff, consultants and partners overseas to assist with domestic and international administrative and programmatic activities. Leila coordinates with WISHH regional directors to plan and implement trade teams, oversees production of quarterly donor reports and manages the preparation and implementation of WISHH committee meetings.

Jim Hershey: Jim is so invested in the WISHH mission that he’s now well into his “second career” with the program, working abroad after first serving as executive director in St. Louis from 2001-2018. As the chief of party in Cambodia, Jim leads WISHH’S Commercialization for Aquaculture for Sustainable Trade (CAST-Cambodia), which is a USDA Food for Progress-funded program. CAST aims to strengthen the Cambodian freshwater aquaculture industry, helping medium and large-scale fish farms there increase their productivity, partly through the exclusive use of soy- based floating feed and good aquaculture practices. CAST also works with the post-harvest market systems to recognize high-quality Cambodian fish production.

Liz Hare: Another former executive director who remains devoted to WISHH, Liz is now strategic advisor to the WISHH program. She has worked for more than 15 years in policy, agriculture, international development, global food security and trade. In her previous roles at WISHH, Liz worked on projects in Pakistan and Central America. She has lived and worked in over 20 countries but still finds parenting to be her greatest adventure! 

Karen Coble Edwards: As WISHH senior advisor, Karen brings nearly 30 years of international trade and agricultural development experience to WISHH’s marketing, branding and promotion efforts. Karen is founder of KCE Public Affairs Associates in Washington, D.C. KCE team members Charlie Townsend and Katharine Lucas also play important roles in making sure WISHH’s successes are widely recognized in the United States and abroad.