Virginia Houston is the Director of Government Affairs at the American Soybean Association (ASA), where she leads ASA efforts on issues pertaining to trade policy, market access, and international biotechnology and crop protection. Houston also handles tax policy, livestock, and aquaculture issues for the association. She joined ASA in 2020 after six years as the Director of Government Relations at the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA), where she was responsible for implementing ASTA’s federal legislative initiatives.Prior to joining ASTA, Houston held previous positions at the National Pork Producers Council, the Animal Agriculture Alliance and the Agriculture Marketing Service at USDA.A native of east Tennessee, Houston grew up on a diversified cow/calf operation, and her family owns and operates the oldest livestock auction market in Tennessee. Houston holds a B.S. in Political Science from the University of Mississippi and a Master’s Degree in Political Management with a specialization in advocacy politics from The George Washington University.

R.J. Layher grew up on his family's fifth generation farm in Southeast Michigan. Layher graduated from Hillsdale College, where he also played football, in 2010 with a degree in Political Economy. Prior to joining the Farm Bureau team in April 2022, Layher worked in the office of Timothy V. Johnson (R-IL-Ret.) during the 2012 Farm Bill, was Director of Health & Regulatory Affairs for the American Horse Council, a Legislative Assistant for Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) during the 2018 Farm Bill, served in the Trump Administration at USDA as a Policy Advisor to Martin Barbre, Administrator of the Risk Management Agency, and most recently was a Legislative Assistant for Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL).Layher is working towards completing his Masters of Agribusiness from Kansas State University.In his free time, Layher enjoys playing golf, traveling, and watching college football and basketball. Layher and his wife, Rachel, and daughter reside in Washington, D.C.

Born and raised in Indiana, Julia Peebles grew up surrounded by agriculture – hunting and fishing on private farmlands. After receiving her undergraduate degree at Sewanee: The University of the South in Tennessee, Peebles pursued a career in agriculture and conservation policy in Washington, D.C. Peebles previously worked on Capitol Hill for Senator Dan Coats (R-IN) and has been in the conservation space for more than a decade.Currently Peebles is the Senior Director of Public Policy at Ducks Unlimited and overseas agriculture policies and other issues relevant to farmers and ranchers.

Wayne Stoskopf serves as a Senior Director of Public Policy at the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), where he focuses on risk management and legislative strategies. He is the lead staff for NCGA’s grower-led Risk Management Action Team which spearheaded NCGA’s policy development for the Farm Bill and budget reconciliation tax legislation. Stoskopf previously worked for the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee where he served as Senior Professional Staff overseeing commodity, crop insurance, disaster, and grain standards programs. In that role, Stoskopf led staff-level negotiations for the commodities and crop insurance titles during the 2018 reauthorization of the Farm Bill.Stoskopf was raised on his family’s farm near Hoisington, Kansas, and graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in Agribusiness.

Clark Ogilvie is Deputy Staff Director on the Democratic staff of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture. This is Ogilvie’s third time with the Committee having served from 2005-2014 and from 2018-2019. During that time, he helped enact three Farm Bills and craft both the derivatives title of the Dodd-Frank Act and the 2008 reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In addition to working on the Committee, Ogilvie served for two and a half years as Chief of Staff of the CFTC and two years as General Counsel for the Farm Credit Administration.Originally from Memphis, he has a law degree from The George Washington University and a B.A. from Rhodes College.

Josh Tonsager is Senior Professional Staff for U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry under the leadership of Ranking Member Debbie Klobuchar (D-MN) handling commodity programs and crop insurance policy. Previously Tonsager worked for the House Agriculture Committee under Chairman then Ranking Member David Scott (D-GA); was Vice President of Policy and Communications for the National Association of Wheat Growers; and was a Legislative Assistant to former U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD).Tonsager began his career with the National Farmers Union after receiving his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of South Dakota. He comes from a family farm near Oldham, SD.

Brad Weddelman is the Chief Economist for Senate Republicans on the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Weddelman served as chief economist at an agricultural advocacy firm for more than seven years prior to joining the committee. Before moving to the nation’s capital, he worked as a teaching and research assistant for the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University.Weddelman earned his Master of Science in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Toledo.

Cheri Bustos is an American journalist, healthcare executive, and politician who served as the U.S. representative from Illinois’s 17th congressional district from 2013-2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first woman elected to Congress from her district in the northwestern part of the state, anchored by the Illinois side of the Quad Cities and partially including Peoria and Rockford. In 2019, Bustos became chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).Elected to the East Moline City Council in 2007, Bustos defeated Republican Party incumbent Bobby Schilling in the 2012 election and a 2014 rematch. In 2021, Bustos and Senator Dick Durbin were the only Democrats in Illinois’s congressional delegation who are not from the Chicago area.In 2023, Bustos joined the Washington D.C.-based public affairs and lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs as a consultant.

Mike Conaway served eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing 29 counties in Texas’ 11th Congressional District, including the cities of Midland, Odessa, and San Angelo.Conaway ultimately served as Chairman of both the House Agriculture Committee and the House Ethics Committee. In the 111th Congress, he was selected by then-House Speaker John Boehner to serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HSPCI), a role he continued for 12 years. In the 110th Congress, then-Majority Whip Eric Cantor selected him to serve as a deputy Republican Whip, a position he held the remainder of his tenure with proceeding Whips Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise. In 2017 Speaker Paul Ryan tasked Conaway with chairing the HSPCI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential elections. He also held various leadership positions in the House Committee on Armed Services serving as the Chairman of the Panel on Defense Financial Management and Auditability Reform and the Ranking Member of the Armed Service Committee’s Panel on Defense Acquisition Reform. He was also appointed to the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point serving from 2012 to his retirement from Congress in 2021. A native Texan, Conaway grew up in Odessa and graduated from Odessa Permian High School in 1966 after playing on Permian’s first state championship football team. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from Texas A&M University-Commerce in 1970. After serving in the Army at Fort Hood from 1970-1972, he rejoined Price Waterhouse & Co. in Dallas and became a Certified Public Accountant. He moved to Midland, Texas in 1979 with Price Waterhouse. After leaving Price Waterhouse he worked with George W. Bush as the Chief Financial Officer for Bush Exploration. Soon after Bush was elected governor of Texas, he appointed Conaway to the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy, where he served as chairman for five of his seven years on the board. He also spent six years in banking.

Pat Swanson was appointed Administrator of the USDA Risk Management Agency in March 2025 by the Trump Administration, after recently serving as a member of the USDA’s Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) Board. Swanson oversees the delivery of the federal crop insurance and risk management tools that serve as a foundation for farmer financial stability and long-term resiliency.Swanson brings more than two decades of experience in agriculture risk management. She co-owned and operated Son Risk Management from 2002-2025, where she specialized in crop insurance solutions for producers across southeastern Iowa. Her family also owns and operates a seventh-generation farm new Ottumwa, Iowa, raising corn, soybeans, and cattle. Her public service includes leadership on the Iowa Farm Service Agency State Committee, as well as her time on the FCIC Board of Directors. She also worked in the private sector as a software engineer before returning to the farm. Swanson supports rural development and youth leadership through volunteer service. She represented southeast Iowa as a Director with the Iowa Soybean Association and served on the American Soybean Association Board. She also serves as Secretary for the Wapello County 4-H Foundation and participates in outreach through Iowa 4-H and Command Ground Iowa. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Iowa State University. Swanson and her husband, Don, and their family, are deeply connected to their community and agricultural roots.

Associate Administrator Ken Selzer serves in the leadership of the USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA). With a career spanning insurance, reinsurance, and agricultural production, Selzer brings a unique blend of expertise and leadership to the agency. In this role, Selzer works alongside Administrator Pat Swanson and the RMA team to strengthen the delivery of risk management tools that help producers prepare for the unexpected and build more resilient farming operations across the country. Selzer served as Kansas Insurance Commissioner from 2015 to 2019, overseeing the state’s insurance market regulation. He spent more than three decades in the reinsurance industry, including as Executive Managing Director at Aon’s Reinsurance Solutions Group. He also served on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Federal Crop Insurance Corporation Board, where he worked closely with stakeholders and deepened his understanding of how federal crop insurance supports producers and rural communities.

Nathan Gonzales is Editor & Publisher of Inside Elections, which provides nonpartisan analysis of campaigns for Senta, House, Governor and President. He’s also co-host of the Inside Elections Podcast and an Elections Analyst for CQ Roll Call.

Dr. Joe Outlaw is a Regents Fellow, Professor and Extension Economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University. He also serves as the Director of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center (AFPC) at Texas A&M University. In this role, Dr. Outlaw frequently interacts with members of Congress and key agricultural committee staff to provide feedback on the likely consequences of agricultural policy changes. His extension education and applied research activities are focused on assessing the impacts of commodity programs, crop insurance, renewable energy, and climate change legislation on U.S. agricultural operations. Dr. Outlaw has received numerous awards in excellence for his policy education efforts. He is originally from Devine, Texas. He received his Bachelor of Science (1987), Master of Science (1988), and Ph.D. (1992) degrees from Texas A&M University, all in Agricultural Economics.

Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun will go down as perhaps the greatest program builder in college basketball history. In taking the University of Connecticut from a regional contender to a three-time national champion, Calhoun is unquestionably regarded as one of college basketball's legendary leaders.Calhoun's phenomenal coaching success story includes winning three NCAA National Championships (1999, 2004, 2011) at Connecticut, one of just five coaches to win three or more. He earned basketball's highest honor while still an active coach, election into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2005. Calhoun's college coaching career included just two stops—Northeastern University in Boston and the University of Connecticut in Storrs. In 14 seasons at Northeastern, Calhoun led NU from Division II ranks to status as one of the nation's top Division I mid-major programs. In 26 seasons at Connecticut, Calhoun transformed UConn from a regional contender to a three-time national champion and earned the school a spot among the nation's elite college basketball programs. In May of 1986, Calhoun was named head coach of basketball at UConn and led the Huskies to the top of the NCAA basketball mountaintop—winning three NCAA National Championships while also claiming an NIT Championship. Coach Calhoun took the Huskies from second division finishes in the BIG EAST Conference standings to a record-setting 17 league titles (10 regular season, 7 tournaments) and lofty status as the most successful program in BIG EAST Conference basketball history. Calhoun's overall record as a collegiate head coach was 873-380, moving into rare air and status as a member of the 800-win college coaching fraternity. During his history-making years as head coach at Connecticut, Calhoun compiled an overall record of 625-243. Prior to 1986, Connecticut basketball had posted just two 23-win seasons in history. After arriving at UConn in the spring of 1986, Calhoun averaged 24 wins per year. He finished his career as third all-time with 1,253 games coached.In April of 2005, Calhoun became just the seventh recipient of the prestigious John R. Wooden "Legends of Coaching" Award, presented by the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Previous winners of the award at that time included fellow Hall of Fame coaches Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski and Lute Olson. In November of 2006, Calhoun's career achievements were recognized by his peers when he was named a member of the Founding Class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He was the first coach in the history of the BIG EAST Conference to be named BIG EAST Conference Coach of the Year four times. He earned his first BIG EAST Coach of the Year award in 1989-90 and won the honor following the 1993-94, 1995-96 and 1997-98 seasons. Calhoun's success at producing top-flight collegiate stars who also excelled at the professional basketball level, was an annual event at Connecticut. A total of 28 former UConn stars for Calhoun have played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). They include: Clifford Robinson, Tate George, Chris Smith, Scott Burrell, Donyell Marshall, Donny Marshall, Kevin Ollie, Ray Allen, Travis Knight, Richard Hamilton, Khalid El-Amin, Jake Voskuhl, Caron Butler, Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva, Hilton Armstrong, Josh Boone, Rudy Gay, Marcus Williams, Hasheem Thabeet, A.J. Price, Jeff Adrien, Jerome Dyson, Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb, Andre Drummond and Shabazz Napier. The Jim Calhoun Celebrity Classic has raised over $6.5 million for the UConn Foundation Inc.'s Jim and Pat Calhoun Cardiology Research Endowment Fund for the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center at the UConn Health Center. The Jim Calhoun Cancer Challenge Ride and Walk has raised over $2 Million dollars for the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at the UConn Health Center. Born in Braintree, Massachusetts, Calhoun and his wife, Pat, were married in 1966 and now live in Pomfret, Conn. They have two sons, James and Jeffrey. James and his wife Jennifer, live in Massachusetts with daughters, Emily and Katie, and son Sam. Jeffrey and his wife, Amy, live in Connecticut with daughters, Avery, Reese, and Peyton.

Tim Alderson is a dedicated crop insurance agent with the Gallagher Agency, in Blairs, VA. With a career spanning roughly 25 years, Tim has demonstrated unwavering commitment, innovation, and advocacy for farmers and the agricultural sector.

Joe Bafia’s leadership stands out because it is both genuine and deeply impactful. His commitment to integrity and forward-thinking approach is evident in every aspect of his work. As a member of the NCIS East Regional/State (R/S) Committee, Joe’s ability to inspire trust and confidence among his peers and Committee members has created a culture of collaboration and excellence within the group. He leads not for recognition, but out of a sincere desire to serve the industry and support its members.

Jim Korin’s leadership in the crop insurance industry is nothing short of extraordinary. For decades, he has shown unwavering dedication, deep expertise, and a genuine commitment to the American farmer. His broad knowledge of industry trends, regulatory frameworks, and financial impacts make him an indispensable resource within NAU Country Insurance Company and across the broader agricultural insurance landscape. Jim’s ability to translate complex issues into actionable insights has earned him the respect of colleagues, agents, and industry officials alike. He is a trusted advisor, a thoughtful mentor, and a tireless advocate for the integrity and sustainability of the crop insurance program.

During Grant Krohn’s 26-year tenure with Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company of Iowa, and more than four decades in the crop insurance sector, Grant established himself as a respected leader, mentor, and subject matter expert through his significant contributions.

Dave Schuler currently serves as Executive Vice President of Field Services for Rain and Hail and has been a key member of our senior management for many years. His keen analytical skills coupled with his deep sense of curiosity has greatly benefited the crop insurance program and helped strengthen the farmer safety net!

Bill Wilson exemplifies what it means to be a leader in the crop insurance industry. Since beginning his career in 1990 as an underwriter for American Agrinsurance, Bill has demonstrated unwavering dedication to the integrity and advancement of the industry. He is known for his deep understanding of the Risk Management Agency (RMA) guidelines, his commitment to compliance, and his proactive approach to advocating for thoughtful change. His ability to interpret and implement complex regulations has made him a trusted resource across the industry.