Jess joined the company in 2010 as a Global Chemistry Regulatory Affairs Lead. In 2014 she transitioned to the Global Crop Protection Organization as the Global Crop Protection Marketing and Portfolio Lead. She then moved into the role of North American Regional Crops Lead in 2016, focusing on product management and business strategy for several crops. Jess then transitioned into a global commercial strategy role, as the Global Cotton, Sorghum, and Alfalfa Manager in 2018. In this role she was accountable for leading cross functional teams across the regions, Technology, and Corporate to develop the wholistic crop strategies across seeds, traits, CP, seed growth, and digital platforms. She then served as the Head of Sustainability & Business Stewardship for Bayer Crop Science. Her team was the trusted business partner for creating sustainable agriculture solutions that generate value for our grower customers, investors and stakeholders, while protecting our environment and positively impacting society. Soon thereafter, Jess also took over leading Communications for the Crop Science division and still acts today in a Strategic Communications capacity.

Jess graduated with a B.S. in Biology, emphasis in Microbiology, and minor in Chemistry from Southeast Missouri State in 1998, followed by a M.S. in Environmental Sciences & Land Resources from Montana State University in 2002. She resides in St. Louis, MO with her husband and is the proud mom of two amazing boys.

Professor David Jordan is a sorghum breeder and geneticist with more than 30 years’ experience in both the public and private sectors. He leads Australia’s public sorghum pre-breeding program, initially based within the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and now at the University of Queensland. During his time with the program, it has licensed more than 2,500 inbred lines to industry. These lines contribute to nearly all hybrids grown in Australia and are widely used in sorghum breeding programs globally. The program is recognized as having made a significant contribution to the large productivity gains achieved by Australian sorghum growers over recent decades. For more than 15 years, Professor Jordan has also led and contributed to projects aimed at modernizing crop improvement programs in Africa. He has published more than 200 scientific papers, focusing on plant breeding, quantitative genetics, genomics, and adaptation to biotic and abiotic stresses.

Kira Everhart-Valentin currently serves as the Alliance Manager for Cowpea for Gates Agricultural Innovations, where she leads the coordination of a product development pipeline under the Alliance for Cowpea Improvement in Africa (ACIA). Made up of an international consortium of partners, ACIA aims to develop new cowpea solutions that respond to urgent smallholder farmer needs in sub-Saharan Africa.

Kira has been engaged in the international agricultural research sector for nearly 20 years in both support and leadership of numerous research and development initiatives across the globe. She has managed and facilitated agricultural innovation discovery and development in West Africa, East Africa, and Haiti, and has built partnerships across multi-sector, multi-disciplinary teams to further advance effective and impactful collaboration.

Prior to joining Gates Ag One, Kira worked to support the strengthening of regional sorghum and millet value chain development in multiple African countries through her role with the USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet at Kansas State University, where she partnered closely with NARS, universities, NGOs, farmers groups and other private and public sector players. She also later served as the director of sustainability for the United Sorghum Checkoff Program and led the co-creation of partnerships across actors and institutions including environmental/conservation organizations, private companies, industry groups, agencies, and producers for farmer-focused solutions to key sustainability and economic challenges.

Lanier Dabruzzi, MS, RD, LD, is the Director of Nutrition & Food Innovation for the United Sorghum Checkoff Program. In this role, she is responsible for increasing the use of sorghum in the U.S. food supply as an ingredient and stand-alone product, as well as managing nutrition research for the industry.

With a passion for agriculture and nutrition communication, she has worked with a variety of commodity food groups throughout her career, including dairy, beef and almonds, regularly appearing on radio, television and in print media.

She received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Southern California in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, her Master of Science from the University of Tennessee in Nutrition Science and completed her dietetic internship at Emory University Hospitals.

Florentino Lopez is a South Texas native with deep agricultural roots. Florentino holds a degree in Agricultural Education from Texas A&M University, Kingsville. His career has involved livestock production, crop markets, international trade, and agricultural program development. As the founder of Creando Mañana (“Creating Tomorrow”), Florentino provides consulting and strategic guidance on a broad range of agricultural initiatives. Through this work, he collaborates with producers, agribusinesses, and organizations seeking to strengthen their position, identify new opportunities, and develop forward-looking strategies that support long-term success.

Ignacio Ciampitti, a quantitative agronomist with a focus on the integration of digital agriculture in the context of complex farming systems, has joined Purdue University as the co-director of the Institute for Digital and Advanced Agricultural Systems (IDAAS) and a full professor in the agronomy department. Prior to this role, he was one of the founding directors of the Institute for Digital Agriculture and Advanced Analytics at Kansas State University. With a strong academic foundation, including a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Buenos Aires and Ph.D. in agronomy from Purdue, Ciampitti’s research explores the integration of crop eco-physiology and plant nutrition with data science, remote sensing and crop modeling tools. Ciampitti has trained many graduate students, research scholars and post-doctoral researchers, and led critical key projects with industry and farmers around the globe. Ciampitti brings a wealth of experience from various past and current leadership roles that position him to successfully lead Purdue’s IDAAS in advancing technology-driven and data-informed agricultural solutions.

Mitch Tuinstra is Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Purdue University and holds the Wickersham Chair of Excellence in Agricultural Research.

He also serves as Scientific Director of the Purdue Institute for Plant Sciences, where he leads strategic investments in advanced phenotyping infrastructure and interdisciplinary plant science innovation. His research focuses on improving maize and sorghum productivity and resilience in drought- and heat-prone environments through genetics, genomics, and high-throughput phenotyping, with collaborations spanning the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Dr. Tuinstra’s work has contributed to the development of climate-resilient crop cultivars and new genetic resources supporting global food security.

He is a Fellow of both the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America. His contributions to research, teaching, and international engagement have been recognized with the Crops & Soils Merit Award (2022) and Purdue’s Lowell S. Hardin Award for Excellence in International Agriculture (2023).

Sarah Sexton-Bowser is director for the Center for Sorghum Improvement.

The center, housed at Kansas State University, links discoveries and developments of researchers and innovators with the practical needs of farmers and end-users. The center’s work aims to advance sorghum productivity and profitability. Learn more at www.csisorghum.org

Sarah has experience working for agribusiness trade associations, the United Sorghum Checkoff and National Sorghum Producers, and farms alongside her husband raising diversified grains and forages and a cow-calf operation. She earned her doctorate from Kansas State University where she studied the water-limited yield potential of sorghum.