Meet the team

Bringing an authentic passion to every project

Amy Skoczlas Cole

Amy

Skoczlas Cole

President

Over the course of a 25-year career spanning Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits and foundations, Amy has worked to reimagine the systems that deliver sustainable food, clean water and low carbon energy to society. Amy has worked domestically and internationally at every point in the food-fuel-fiber value chain, advancing new paradigms for a healthy, thriving society and planet. She currently serves as President of Trust In Food, a purpose-driven business accelerating the adoption of regenerative agriculture across the U.S., and America’s Conservation Ag Movement, one of the largest and most diverse public-private partnerships in conservation agriculture’s history. Trust In Food is a division of Farm Journal, U.S. agriculture’s leading business intelligence and communications company.

Ask me about:

Human dimensions of behavior change, carbon and water markets, the future of regenerative agriculture and livestock, bringing innovation to scale, cross-sector collaborations

Jimmy Emmons

Jimmy

Emmons

Senior Vice President, Climate-Smart Programs

Jimmy Emmons leads Trust In Food’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Connected Ag Project, America’s Conservation Ag Movement and Trust In Beef, coalition-driven conservation programs developed to accelerate the adoption of conservation agriculture at scale. Jimmy and his wife, Ginger, own and operate Emmons Farm in Leedey, Okla., where they farm 2,000 acres and have 5,000 acres of rangeland where they run 300 head of cows and calves in an integrated row-crop and livestock operation that optimizes water resources, reduces erosion and improves organic material in the soils. He is a public speaker, educator, mentor and advocate for conservation management practices to improve producers’ resiliency to weather, operational efficiency and profitability.

Ask me about:

Regenerative agriculture, securing a firm future for American agriculture, the importance of soil health, ways to improve soils through increased carbon and water-holding capacity, resiliency through regenerative practices, how growers and producers can achieve profitability through regenerative practices

Rebecca Bartels

Rebecca

Bartels

Vice President, Trust In Food

Rebecca has spent her career working domestically and internationally as a strategic partner and market navigation advisor to leading food retail and CPG companies, multinational agribusinesses, foundations, government and nonprofits. Specializing in leveraging human-centered data-driven insights to inform engagement and behavior change, Rebecca has a proven track record helping partners ensure that every dollar spent on farmer and value chain outreach has maximum impact on outcomes. Currently serving as Vice President of Farm Journal’s purpose driven Trust In Food division, Rebecca uses her extensive network across the public and private sector to build collective impact coalitions and form strategic partnerships that advance the adoption of conservation agriculture practices in measurable ways.

Ask me about:

Designing informed and outcomes driven change programs, farmer perspectives on sustainability, accelerating regenerative ag adoption, and bringing transformative solutions to scale.

Judy

Rockvam

Vice President, Human Dimensions of Sustainable Agriculture 

Trust In Food knows that climate-smart agriculture begins in the minds of the farmer. Judy Rockvam leads the team that analyzes the hearts and minds of those farmers, digging into how they make decisions, what factors lead to change and ultimately, what is needed to support movement along their sustainability journey.   Judy has spent decades in consumer insights and market research with an emphasis on uncovering what stands in the way of new behavior. Her expertise crosses a variety of industries and includes transportation, retail, hospitality, healthcare and technology.

Ask me about:

Farmer insights, data-driven decision-making, research strategy, qualitative and quantitative research initiatives, journey mapping, consumer behavior, ground level change, readiness, attitudinal studies

David Frabotta

David

Frabotta

Director of Climate-Smart Content

David Frabotta is an award-winning multimedia journalist with 20+ years of B2B publishing and brand management experience. He’s worked in agriculture for more than 10 years focused on the global crop input industries and precision agriculture, including the impact of site-specific farming on sustainability and profitability.

Ask me about:

Input supply chains, autonomy and robotics, machine learning, carbon farming, integrated marketing campaigns, public relations and outreach, and how consumer trends and preferences are driving change in food and production systems.

Kaeli

Elisco

Senior Director of Client Success and Operations

Kaeli leads the Client Success Trust In Food team focusing on project management and creating an excellent customer journey. With more than 15 years of media and managing and executing programs to ensure client success, Kaeli’s diligence and expertise ensures that all of our work benefits the short and longterm goals of our clients and the industry.

Ask me about:

My ability to connect and grow client partnerships. Listening to their objectives and identifying a strategy to meet and exceed their goals.

Andrew

Lauver

Director of Business Development

Andrew Lauver joins Farm Journal serving as Director of Business Development, Trust in Food, following more than a decade in the ag industry focused on precision agriculture, biotechnology, sustainability, ag policy, and industry relations. In this role, Andrew delivers Trust In Food’s capabilities to support food companies, agribusinesses, nonprofits, and government agencies with their sustainable food and regenerative agriculture goals, strategies, programs and products. Andrew is from a fifth-generation family farm and received his BS from Iowa State University in Agricultural Studies, holds a Master of Agribusiness from Kansas State University, and a Master of Jurisprudence in Agricultural Law and Sustainability from the Drake University Law School. He has international farm and animal agricultural study experience in Europe, Asia, and South America. Andrew resides in Iowa on his family’s farm with his wife Mary and their two daughters, Doris and Viola.

Ask me about:

Industry partnerships, precision agriculture, water quality, scaling sustainable agriculture, productivity, and profitability, conservation, succession planning, the importance of rural vitality, ag policy and potential strategic alliances in the agricultural supply chain

Andrew

Lyon

Director of Technical Assistance, Climate-Smart Commodities Connected Ag Project

In his role as Director of Technical Assistance, Andrew Lyon uses his expertise to support growers in Trust in Food’s Climate-Smart Commodities Connected Ag Project. His 15+ year career has focused on natural resource conservation, soil health, water quality improvement, water conservation and building public/private partnerships. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University in Agriculture and a master’s degree from Oklahoma State University in Environmental Science. Andy and his family operate a commercial cow/calf ranching operation near Emporia, Kansas.

Ask me about:

Soil Health, Regenerative Agriculture, Water Quality, Irrigation Technology Improvement to Reduce Water Use, Farmer-to-Farmer Engagement, Federal/State/Local Conservation Program Implementation, Building Public/Private Partnerships, Ecosystem Service Markets

Cara

Urban

Sustainability + Carbon Analyst

As Trust In Food’s Sustainability + Carbon Analyst, Cara Urban supports the design, implementation and delivery of TIF’s research solutions and actionable insights. She works with teams across Farm Journal and beyond to develop TIF’s in-house expertise on agricultural carbon and ecosystem service offerings and markets. Her goal: to keep TIF on the cutting edge of what farmers can do for the planet.

Ask me about:

Farmer attitudes on sustainability, climate-smart agriculture, systems thinking, voluntary markets, food as health, validating ecosystem service benefits, environmental policy communications

Emily

Maneval

Client Success Manager

Emily Maneval is Trust In Food’s Client Success Manager. Her work focuses specifically with our America’s Conservation Ag Movement (ACAM) clients. She engages our private and public sector partners to ensure they are receiving the support needed to achieve their goals and deliverables while maintaining the progress and integrity of the ACAM mission to accelerate climate-smart agriculture. Her goal is to achieve efficient and effective project management while maintaining highly satisfied clients. 

Ask me about:

Sustainable food systems, on-farm planning and adoption of sustainable practices, history of U.S. farm policy, behavioral change models, farmer perspective on transitional agriculture, three-legged stool of sustainability

Jamie

Sears Rawlings

Manager, Climate-Smart Communications

Working in agriculture communications for more than a decade has taught Jamie Sears Rawlings one principle: In order for the industry to accept and adopt change, it must have information to drive those decisions. Jamie joins the Trust In Food and American’s Conservation Ag Movement to focus on providing more of the information needed to bridge the gap between consumers and the farm-gate and help propel conservation agriculture to the forefront of all conversations.  

Ask me about:

challenges in agriculture communications, grower-centric communications tools, building grassroots advocacy coalitions, biologicals, integrated pest management programs

Rebecca

Tobin

Analyst, Human Dimensions for Sustainable Agriculture

Data is the driving force behind the climate-smart economy, and Rebecca Tobin excels at analyzing data, specifically as a way to accelerate change behavior. She uses her expertise in statistical analysis, modeling and uncovering patterns to bring actionable insights to our clients and partners to help build a more resilient future for the agricultural industry. Rebecca has first-hand experience on American farms, both growing up on a small farm in Minnesota and later working on an organic farm in Montana. She first experienced the intersection of data and agriculture while executing agricultural field research in both her undergraduate and graduate studies. 

Ask me about:

Data-driven decision-making, statistical modeling, marketing analytics

Betsy

Jackson

Outreach Coordinator, Climate-Smart Programming for Historically Underserved Communities

As the Outreach Coordinator, Betsy focuses on building authentic partnerships to expand Farm Journal’s reach to historically underserved farmers and ranchers. Her goal is to support these producers in adopting climate-smart practices that align with their values and aspirations. With almost a decade of farming experience, Betsy has cultivated her expertise across various scales and climates, focusing on organically grown specialty crops and diversified operations. She most recently managed an incubator farm that supported refugee farmers from Burma, highlighting her commitment to equitable and community-driven agriculture. She currently resides in North Carolina with her family.

Ask me about:

Developing resilience, exploring the synergy between organic farming and climate-smart practices, designing drip irrigation systems for water conservation, cultivating specialty crops within sustainable farming, recognizing the value of floriculture for small farm profitability, crafting accessible content, advocating for farmer-centered equity and collaboration

Kristin Leigh Lore

Kristin

Leigh Lore

Manager of Climate-Smart Content

Kristin is a writer with over two decades experience telling the stories of food producers, Fortune 500 companies and start-ups at every stage of the seed to plate journey. As Manager of Climate-Smart Content, she writes stories, curates resources and develops programming that spotlights best-in-class conservation agriculture practices and people across Trust In Food’s platforms. Finding new ways to encourage innovative farmers and ranchers and promote the resilience of the natural environment is what gets her up in the morning.

Ask me about:

specialty crops, sourcing standards and certifications, agtech, food labels, farmworker welfare, organic policy and prescribed fire

Joelle

Orem

Visual Communications Manager

Joelle leads Trust In Food’s visual communications strategy and execution for key producer-facing initiatives including the Climate-Smart Commodities Connected Ag Project and Trust In Beef. With over a decade of experience in marketing, communications and brand management, she applies a holistic approach to addressing challenges through creative solutions. She and her husband own and operate Orem Farms in Central Indiana where they manage an integrated crop and livestock operation and a thriving direct-to-consumer beef business. As fourth-generation farmers, they firmly believe in transparency within the food industry and have recently started the transition to regenerative agricultural practices.

Ask me about:

Regenerative agriculture, farmer-facing communications, food transparency, technology and machinery, grassroots marketing strategies, creative outreach, events, succession planning, farmer-to-farmer engagement, producer perspectives

Chelsea

Slaton

Grants Manager

Chelsea Slaton is the Grants Manager for Trust In food.  In this role, Chelsea utilizes her vast experience in managing grant programs and projects to ensure that we have the systems, processes, and reporting needed to meet requirements and to ensure that we can demonstrate the impact being made. She liaises with partners on financial and impact reporting, as well as operational needs.  Chelsea comes to Trust in Food from California Farmland Trust where she served as the Conservation Director. Her previous roles include working as the Director of Development for the California Waterfowl Association and prior to that, managing the Political Affairs Department of the California Farm Bureau Federation. Chelsea has a keen awareness that it takes many contributing parties to succeed in conservation and believes that for long-term and widespread conservation practices in agriculture to be successful, the future will require support and consideration of many stakeholders.

Ask me about:

conservation, project management, conservation easements, ag policy, specialty crops, food labeling, advocating for incentive-based conservation programs, grassroots advocacy, regenerative agriculture

Advisers

Jay Vroom

Jay Vroom chairs the America’s Conservation Ag Movement Board of Advisers, guiding the largest public-private conservation partnership in American agriculture. Jay is a long-trusted voice in agribusiness, having served 30 years as CEO of CropLife America, the trade association for companies that produce, sell and distribute crop protection and biotechnology products used by farmers, ranchers and landowners.

Jay served as chairman of the FFA Foundation’s Individual Giving Council and continues as a member of FFA’s President’s Advisory Council. Jay also sits on the boards of the Soil Health Institute and Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity. He also has served in leadership positions on the U.S. Production Ag CEO Council, the Coalition to Advance Precision Agriculture, the Agricultural Retailers Association and Asmark Institute.

An agriculture honors graduate from the University of Illinois, Jay still owns the crop farming operation he grew up on in north-central Illinois.

Chad Ellis

Chad Ellis

Chad Ellis is the Chief Executive Officer for Texas Agricultural Land Trust (TALT) and the founding chair of Trust In Beef. He brings a wealth of land conservation experience, most recently in his work for the Noble Research Institute, the largest nonprofit agricultural research organization in the U.S.  Mr. Ellis has over 20 years of experience working directly with producers and land managers implementing stewardship focused management.

Ellis not only promotes and advocates land stewardship principles, he also implements it within his own family operation in Lohn, Texas. Mr. Ellis is passionate about helping empower the producer to be better tomorrow than they are today. Ellis brings deep connections and experience with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, where he served in increasingly responsible roles for a decade. He also currently serves on an executive advisory board to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

Contact Us

Get in touch with Trust in Food to learn more about how we can help your organization meet its conservation and sustainability goals.

We appreciate you contacting us!

We’ve received your message and we’ll be reaching out to you shortly!

— Your Trust in Food Team