Officers | Innovative Farmers of Ohio

	Sylvia Zimmerman is a retired dairy person living on a large grain farm in Delaware Co., now makes cheese from pastured Jersey cows in her on-farm cheese house. She also has a small flock of laying hens and several Red Devon beef cattle from which she sells eggs and grass-fed beef respectively. She is an ordained minister and a retired school teacher. She serves on the Board of Directors of Stratford Ecological Center in Delaware Co. She served as President of IFO and her comments are available at President’s Post
	Dan Trudel owns a u-pick raspberry operation in Knox County with his wife Ann. He acknowledges his wife for her creatie/imaginative work with the berries and they both have seized the opportunity to explore on-farm value added enterprises. He has alsoworked and continues as a consultant for site selection and positioning of businesses such as restaurants and farmers markets.
	Sister Rita Wienken operates a large garden, flock of layiing hens, berry patch, and green houses for the St. Francis Mother House in Tiffin, Seneca Co. She also organizes 50 CSA’s (Community Sustained Agriculture) In her spare time she supervises an on-farm market. She co-founded the Earth Literacy Center located on the St. Francis campus which serves as an educational opportunity for young children in agriculture.
	Mary Holmes, current President of IFO, co-founded the North Union Farmers Market in Cleveland in 1995. In 2005 she wrote a report for the Farmland Center entitled, “Entrepreneurial Farming: Part of the Plan for Economic Prosperity in Northeast Ohio,” which profiled over 40 farmers in the region who were making a living farming and selling direct. She is a Presidential Fellow at Case Western Reserve University where she teaches a seminar on food, farming, and economic prosperity. She also publishes a blog at:: www.bountyofthewesternreserve.com/wordpress
	Abbe Turner lives with her husband and three children in Portage Co. where she tends and milks a small herd of goats. She will soon be making cheese in an off-farm facility in Kent, Ohio, and selling her products. Her training is in fund raising and she works full time for the Northeast Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicines and Pharmacy.
	Dave Beck is the director of the Center for Innovative Food Technology (CIFT) in Toledo, Ohio. He works directly with Marcy Kaptur, Ohio’s Representative and member of the Committee on Agriculture. Dave knows more about food production than anyone in Ohio.
	Dwight Mitchell is an agriculture engineer with degrees in business education and environmental studies. He presently teaches at Athens Alternative Education Program in Albany, Ohio. He also raises a small herd of beef cattle on his farm in Athens Co. His present interest is in seeing that farmers utilize on-farm energy sources to empower their profits as well as harmonize with the land.