A former Purdue Extension youth development educator has joined Indiana Farm Bureau as the organization’s leadership development coordinator.
Brandon Rice joined INFB in August, and in his new role, he will work closely with the Indiana Young Farmers & Ag Professionals Committee as well as county programs.
“I’m going to focus on the YF&AP program and state committee to start with,” Rice said. Noting that the program was known as the Young Farmer program until early this year, Rice said it is important to continue to work on that rebranding effort and to find out from younger members what they want the YF&AP program to look like – “what they want to keep doing and what they want to see more of,” he said.
Rice also will work to enhance INFB’s leadership development programming at both the state and county levels, said Megan Ritter, INFB executive director of administration.
Rice came to INFB from St. Joseph County Extension, where he was a youth development educator and was responsible for creating educational workshops for both youth and adults. He also served on several statewide Extension committees, including serving as vice chair of the state evaluation committee for Indiana 4-H.
A graduate of Franklin Community High School, Rice attended Purdue, where he earned a bachelor's degree in education and minored in animal science. He then earned a master's degree in education with a graduate certificate in instructional design.