I split my time between two worlds. In one, I’m an assistant professor for a graduate medical school. In the other, I’m a small rancher.
I am president of the Iowa Food Systems Council, member-based non-profit organization whose charge is to monitor Iowa’s food and health landscape, to encourage and coordinate connections between food system leaders and decision-makers, and to identify policies, programs and research that cultivate a resilient and sustainable food system.
My home, Two Mile Ranch, is halfway between Des Moines and Kansas City. Two Mile Ranch features a game bird habitat where we raise and release pheasants and grow pasture-raised ducks, turkeys, and chickens that are antibiotic free.
During my career I’ve been a special assistant to the president of a four-year college, the program director of a paramedic training program, vice president of a multi-million dollar advertising agency, president of my own consulting firm, and co-founder of a non-profit organization that worked with two Nobel Prize-nominated charities along with a select group of NGOs that were making a significant difference in the lives of people who were in need or at risk.
Working in 12 countries I’ve produced documentaries, and was an early pioneer in producing Internet-based multimedia storytelling projects in the early 1990s. My first commercial Web site for a client launched in 1994.
Recognized for my creative work four times by USA Today, twice I was picked as one of the Top 100 Producers by AV Video/Multimedia Producer magazine, and recognized by the National Press Photographers Association.
In surgery, Yeravan, Armenia, 1999
In academic work and research, I’ve focused on the topics of learning styles, evidence-based practice, and the role gender plays in health care leadership. Currently I’m completing a documentary and lecture series, We Are What We Eat: The Nutrition, Policy, and Public Health of America’s Diet and beginning a sequel Don’t Put that In Your Mouth, studying food safety, food security and food soverignty.
