Bidisha Bhattacharyya serves as Senior Advisor for Climate and Conservation in USDA’s Farm Production and Conservation mission area. Previously, she served as director for Climate and Energy Policy at the Center for American Progress where she focused on the nexus between climate change and lands, and Vice President of Emerging Markets at the impact-investment firm Village Capital, where she worked with hundreds of innovative startups around the world. Bhattacharyya also spent several years on Capitol Hill as Senior Energy and Agriculture Policy Adviser to Senator Al Franken of Minnesota and as Energy and Agriculture Legislative Assistant for Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota. While she lives in Washington DC with her husband and 2 year old son, she grew up in southern Minnesota and still calls it home.
Dr. Ryan Dierking is a Staff Scientist in Indigo Ag’s Sustainable Sciences where he oversees the field research trialing program in row cropping and grazing systems. This is to evaluate these agricultural practices and their impacts on soil carbon and other environmental areas. He is a trained agronomist specializing in livestock systems as well as corn and soybean production systems. He brings his expertise to better understand practice changes being evaluated in different environments, cropping and livestock systems for participation in carbon markets and programs. This real world data from working farming operations is used to support model calibration and validation and bring new practices online for crediting. Prior to Indigo Ryan worked at various private agricultural companies in R & D. He was raised on a beef operation in Missouri where his family raises registered Red Angus cattle and implemented rotational grazing practices on his family’s operation over 15 years ago. He attended University of Missouri-Columbia where he completed his B.S. along with a M.S. and Ph.D. His Ph.D. was a joint project between the University of Missouri and the Samuel Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma. There Ryan studied the effect of forage fatty acids and their effect on meat from beef as well as cold tolerance in Tall Fescue forages. He completed a Postdoctoral program at Purdue University evaluating the agronomic potential of second generation biofuels. He has authored 8 peer reviewed scientific papers and is a co-inventor of 1 patent.
Dr. DeWitt has served as the Director of the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) since 2014. He previously served as the Climate Program Lead for the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) of Columbia University, and as a research scientist at the Center for Ocean Land Atmosphere Studies (COLA). His personal research focused on development and application of sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) predictions for the health, energy, water resources, and agriculture sectors. He served as an Executive Editor of Climate Dynamics, as an invited reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) FIfth Assessment Report, and as a member of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) Working Group on Seasonal to Interannual Prediction (WGSIP).
Max Feinberg is CTO and co-founder at Verdova, a grower-first ag data company that empowers farmers by helping them monetize, control, and understand their own data. He has a wide range of interests and has worked on projects related to medical devices, blood clots, insurance, hair care, and robots for the space station. Max previously founded a commercial robot cleaning company called Jetson Robotics. Prior to Verdova, he was a founding engineer at the water intelligence company, True Elements.
Dr. Jenny Soong is the Carbon and Ecosystem Services Program Lead at Corteva Agriscience. She works to bring sustainable farming solutions that build soil health to Corteva’s farmer customers through the Corteva Carbon Initiative and digital farming solutions. She has a PhD in Ecology from Colorado State University and over a decade of research experience in soil carbon dynamics, biogeochemistry, and global change ecology. Her past work in Europe and with the U.S. Department of Energy includes soil carbon research spanning the globe from the tropics to the arctic, and now she is applying that understanding of soils and the global carbon cycle toward measuring and rewarding on-farm impacts.
Matt grew up on a small farm in southeast Kansas where his family raised alfalfa and other forage crops for their cow/calf herd. After earning his Bachelor of Science degree in Agronomy from Kansas State University, Matt spent 25 years in various roles within the agriculture industry. Prior to joining Indigo in March 2018, Matt worked as a crop consultant, a soil conservationist for the NRCS/USDA, and an Account Manager for Dupont Pioneer. These roles have given Matt a unique opportunity to see production agriculture at the highest level while also incorporating conservation and regenerative practices to improve long term profitability for the farmer and rancher. Matt enjoys camping with his family, hunting, and following K-State sports – EMAW!
Alyssa Charney was named Chief of Staff for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Previously, Charney worked for U.S. Senator Bob Casey handling his agriculture and environmental portfolio. Prior to her time in the Senate, she led conservation policy at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, including work on the 2018 Farm Bill. Charney holds a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College, a master’s in Food and Agriculture Policy from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, and a master’s in public health from Tufts University.
Adam Jones is a District Sales Manager for MFA Inc., a member owned cooperative, in Northeast Missouri. Beginning his land stewardship and management career in 2008, Adam has extensive experience in managing crop production, wildlife habitats, and soil health. Adam’s passion is to help MFA’s member owners achieve profitability through customer partnering and stewardship of their operations. As a farmer, husband, and father of three, Adam prides himself on practicing what he preaches. He operates his family’s Lewis County, Missouri century farm where he raises corn, soybeans, cover crops, and wildlife habitat.
Elizabeth Spruell is a full-time row-crop farmer in Mount Hope, AL, along with her mother, daughter, and aunt. She owns Spruell Farms, which consists of approximately 6,000 acres of owned and leased land of cotton, corn, soybeans, and wheat, located across six surrounding counties of Northwest Alabama. Elizabeth is the first female to serve on the Alabama Farm Credit Board of Directors. Before becoming a full-time farmer, she held leadership roles as Senior Vice President at a large corporately regulated institution, a Treasury Strategy and Execution role for First Horizon Bank, and has over 20 years of experience in baking with Certified Treasury Professional Accreditation.
Heather Gieseke is a passionate change agent within the agriculture industry, with 15 years of experience spanning commodity training, risk management, advertising, and research. Today she leads the North America commercial execution for Indigo's carbon program, bringing carbon market opportunities to farmers and industry partners at scale. She also serves on the Board and the Executive Committee for the National Agri Marketing Association and as a Crop Life Ambassador educating elementary students about the wonderful world of agriculture. Heather is committed to advancing the connectivity of science and data between farmers, the supply chain, and consumers to protect the planet and a safe, plentiful food supply for future generations.
Ryan Brady was raised on a family farm in southwest Kansas. Today the farm, which he has been running since 2007, consists of 4,200 acres with a 75% dryland/25% irrigated split, along with 1000 acres dryland custom farming for a neighbor. In addition, he manages 480 acres for the USDA Conservation Reserve Program and 1,000 acres of grass that he and his wife, Jera, use for the family's bison herd that they started in 2012. Ryan and Jera have two children, Evelyn and Myles. Being a parent has pushed Ryan to focus on creating a healthier soil for his children, leveraging no till, cover crop and grazing practices to achieve that goal. Ryan graduated from Kansas State University with a teaching degree and taught middle school mathematics for two years before transitioning full time to farming. He also spent time volunteering in the Peace Corp in northern Tanzania from 2005 - 2007.
Ryan Stockwell serves as the Sr. Manager, Partner & Grower Advocacy. Previously, he served as the Director of Sustainable Agriculture for the National Wildlife Federation. In that role, he led the cover crops program, including policy development in the Farm Bill, research coordination, and farmer champion communication training. He also worked on strategies to communicate regenerative agriculture to farmers in ways that best meet their decision-making methodologies. In his spare time he farms near Medford, Wisconsin, using regenerative practices.
Lauren grew up on her family’s six-generation corn, soy, and wheat farm in Iowa, the Blue Diamond Farming Company. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Sociology in 2015, and has led marketing efforts for major brands across the ag industry, including Farm Journal Media, Kent Nutrition Group, Case IH, Granular, Asgrow/DEKALB, and Bayer CropScience. At Indigo, she serves as a Product Marketer focused on Carbon, where she uses her lifetime of experience in ag to help inform how Indigo solutions can help benefit growers the most. Lauren also continues to be actively involved in her family’s farm.
Chip joined Pro Farmer as a floor reporter for Futures World News in January 1988 after graduating from Iowa State University with a degree in Ag Journalism. He spent three3 years reporting from the floors of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange as Bureau Chief for FWN.
Chip moved to the Pro Farmer headquarters in 1991 where he started as Electronic Services Editor. With Pro Farmer, he served as Sr. Market Analyst, General Manager, Editor of the company’s flagship newsletter for 17 years, Editorial Director and is now Editor Emeritus for Pro Farmer.
Chip is the host of Farm Journal Media’s issue- and market-driven AgriTalk radio. Each hour airs live on stations across the country and on the free “AgriTalk” app. Chip is also the Farm Journal Economist, providing market insights for readers in each issue of the company’s flagship magazine, Farm Journal.
Chip grew up on a farm in the east-central Iowa community of Oxford Junction. He has three grandchildren, two grown and married children, and he and his wife Sue live in Denver, Iowa.
Chris Brown leads the Quantification Product Team at Indigo Ag, helping to develop software products which look to scale Indigo's high-quality and rigorous science. Chris first joined Indigo in 2019 and maintains his conviction that nature-based solutions can create win-win opportunities for farmers and the environment. Chris started his career at McKinsey & Company in Houston, TX, and subsequently led food & ag investment research at Cranemere, a long-term private equity investing company. Chris earned his MBA from Kellogg and MS in Design Innovation from Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering.
Keaton has been farming since he was 16 years old, first by doing odd jobs around the family farm and later working for the local co-op during the anhydrous busy seasons. He went on to earn his Associates Degree in Crop Management from the Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster, OH, a branch of Ohio State University. After graduating and spending a few months overseas on a missions trip, he settled in Van Wert, OH, managing two wean-to-finish barns on the family farm.
Greg started his farming career in 1978 and currently farms in general partnership with his brother on 2100 acres in Whitley County, IN. The Wolls plant soybeans, corn, and cover crops, and are 100% no-till. Greg graduated from Purdue University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics.
