Lori arrived to the Montana Wheat & Barley Committee following a long career educating the public about agriculture through the state fair industry. A Montana State University communications graduate, she began work at Fleishman-Hillard PR in their agribusiness division. She spent three early years working for the Montana Grain Growers Association before beginning a 20-year journey in marketing and executive leadership with state fairs in Montana, Idaho and Nebraska.

In 2011, Lori took a hiatus from the fair business to work for the MSU Alumni Foundation as director of corporate relations. Working closely with the Montana Grains Foundation, she helped launch fundraising strategy to achieve the first Chair in MSU’s College of Ag: the Winifred Asbjornson Plant Sciences Chair.

Lori is a fellow with Nebraska LEAD, the country’s oldest agriculture leadership program of its kind. Her class visited Brazil and Costa Rica during their international seminar. “We are always learning, no matter where we are or what we are tasked with,” she says. “It is just as important to communicate the value of agriculture to customers as it is to fourth graders, especially when we produce the highest quality commodities in the world.”

Lori grew up on a wheat and barley operation near Moccasin, MT and was a competitive 4-H and FFA member. She serves on the Great Falls Chamber Ag Committee, speaks to groups across the country, and teaches marketing to a variety of audiences. Lori lives in Great Falls, MT with her husband Jeff, a foreman with ADF International. She raised her children in agriculture life and lives by the mantra #BeImpactful.