Dr. Annie Kinwa-Muzinga is a Professor of Agribusiness in Agribusiness in the Regina Roth Applied Agricultural and Food Studies Department at Morningside University since August 2018. Dr. Annie was awarded the 2023 Educator Award from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) organization at their annual conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico in June 2023. The NACTA Educator Award is a criterion-based award and is awarded upon successful peer review by a committee of NACTA members. She previously served as a Professor and Agribusiness Program co-chair for the School of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville (UW-P), where she had taught since 2002.
Dr. Annie earned her B.S. degree in Applied Economics from the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1988). She also received both her MBA in Finance (1993) and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics with specialization in Food and Agribusiness Management and Strategic Management with a significant Marketing component (2001) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Annie’s research interests cover a broad array of projects related to agriculture as well as the scholarship of teaching including service-learning projects for women in agriculture, and agricultural growth and development. Her most read publication is on Gender Assessment of the Agricultural Sector: The Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This research was in collaboration with the International Food Policy
Research Institute (IFPRI).

      Her dedication to teaching earned her many awards at UW-P including the 2018, 2013, and 2005 Outstanding Faculty in the School of Agriculture; the 2015 Underkofler Teaching Excellence Award from the UW System; the 2015 College of BILSA Outstanding Advisor from UW-P; the 2011 AASCARR Distinguished Educator Award, the 2010 recipient of the Thomas and Lee Ann Lindahl Teaching Excellence Award, the 2008 Woman of the Year, and the 2008 Outstanding Woman of Color.


     Johanna Defenbaugh is the owner of Willow Creek acres, a local Aquaponic and farm shop business. She is a fifth generation owner of her family farm and views that as a privilege. She grew up in a traditional farm operation of corn, soy beans, cattle and sheep. She and her husband combined forces in 1995 and have two grown children who farm with them. Johanna began her a Aquaponic journey in 2017 and sold retail in grocery stores until a year ago. She then built her own farm shop that is stocked with her aquaponic products as well as her own chicken, eggs, honey and seasonal herbs and produce. Her goal is to provide good choices in local food that is also reliably sustainable. 


      Jessica Schultz, Ph.D., is a counseling psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychology at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. She completed her doctoral degree at the University of Iowa and clinical internship at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a licensed psychologist in the state of Iowa and has a small private practice. A fellow in the Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) Institute, she teaches IPT to clinicians around the world. Her research focuses on posttraumatic growth, forgiveness, and training and dissemination of empirically supported psychological treatments, and she has published multiple articles on these topics. She frequently presents to a variety of audiences on positive psychology topics, including applying the science of psychology to bring meaning and contentment to life. 


     Garrett Thalgott is an assistant general counsel with the Illinois Farm Bureau. His practice includes work in agricultural law as well as corporate and nonprofit governance. He practiced agricultural and class action law in New Orleans for almost 10 years prior to joining the Farm Bureau in 2015. He earned a J.D. from Drake University Law School and a B.S. in Agronomy from Brigham Young University.


     In January 2023, Representative Tony McCombie began her fourth term of office as State Representative and first term as House Republican Leader.  McCombie is the first woman to serve as House Republican Leader in Illinois. Before serving in the Illinois House, McCombie served as a City Alderperson and Mayor for the City of Savanna, Illinois. 

    McCombie was born and primarily raised in Savanna and graduated from Western Illinois University in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts with concentrations in Business and Sociology.  Additionally, McCombie has started her Master’s in Public Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  She is a small business owner, owning and operating Blue Appraisals, and is self-employed as a realtor with Mel Foster Company.  

    As a legislator, McCombie is focused on job creation, property tax relief, and improved government accountability. McCombie greatly enjoys working with residents throughout her district and has logged tens of thousands of in-district travel miles since being elected in 2016.

    She has been married to her husband, Curt, since 2006.  He is a lab technician at IFF in Thomson, IL.  Together, they enjoy all types of outdoor activities with their friends and family.


     Raghela Scavuzzo started with Illinois Farm Bureau as the Local Foods Program Manager in the Governmental Affairs and Commodities Division in 2017. She became the Associate Director of Food Systems Development for the organization in 2019 and the Executive Director of the Illinois Specialty Growers Association in 2018.

     In these roles, Raghela is responsible for developing and coordinating farmers and food market channels for food initiatives and food safety. This includes advocacy, policy development infrastructure development, providing technical assistance, and developing partnerships at the local, state, and national level. Work includes hosting regional and national technical assistance conferences in production, business development, marketing, and more. Beyond providing technical assistance she helps connect farmers with resources and agencies through tours, meetings, and events. Moreover, she serves as an expert on local, state and national committees that help build infrastructure, create market opportunities, and develop policy and regulation on behalf of farmers. She serves as a voice and liaison for farmers to organizations and agencies to build strong regional food systems.

     Beginning in 2014, Raghela helped develop and coordinate a local food hub and food access program in Birmingham, Alabama. She helped build infrastructure, provide technical assistance, and develop marketing centered around local food to increase revenue for farmers and the state of Alabama. Her previous experience includes local-supply chain coordination, food packaging, and quality control management, local food marketing campaign coordination, operations process and system development, training and workshop implementation, consumer education management, and farmer-buyer relationship coordination.

     Raghela holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a bachelor’s degree in classical studies with a focus in Latin from Westminster College. She and a master’s degree in public health from Tulane University with a focus in nutrition.


     Natasha has dedicated her life and career to adding a much-needed voice like hers to conversations about issues in the agriculture industry as a leader, speaker, and writer.

     Rachel grew up on a family farm in Mercer County and spent almost five years working for an agriculture company prior to becoming a counselor. Through internships at SIU Center for Family Medicine and Pepper Brown & Associates in Springfield, IL, she gained skills and interventions necessary to help clients struggling with anxiety, depression, life transitions, trauma, grief and more. She currently lives near Springfield, IL with her husband, Jared. Her hobbies include running, traveling, reading and spending hours in the back yard repeatedly throwing a frisbee for her dog, Zoey. Rachel is passionate about increasing access to mental health care in rural areas and believes everyone should be able to find help easily when facing life's challenges.

     Kelly Jackson Hardy is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers, privately-held elevators and supply dealers, and cooperatives. Kelly is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Princeton, Illinois, as well as a regular speaker at tax and estate planning seminars. Kelly was raised on a hog, row crop and cattle farm in central Illinois and has been involved in the ag industry her entire life. Kelly, her husband, and two sons are active in 4-H and operate a small feeder calf operation and pumpkin business. 


     Annaliese Wegner, also known as Modern-day Farm Chick, is a dairy farmer, mother, wife and AGvocate. She farms with her husband and his parents on their 600-cow dairy farm in Ettrick, WI. When she isn't wrangling calves and kids, Annaliese takes to social media to share her farm story and to encourage others in agriculture to do the same. But you won't see Annaliese just talking about dairy farming on her social media channels; from momlife, skincare and recipes, she shares it all. Her passion for connecting people to their food and farmer is what drives her brand, Modern-day Farm Chick. Through social media, speaking, workshops, retreats and events, Annaliese helps others in agriculture effectively share their farm story in an effort to bridge the gap from farm to table.

You can follow Annaliese's story at:
Facebook: Modern-day Farm Chick
Instagram: @modfarmchick
Website: annaliesewegner@gmail.com