2024 Summer Meeting Speakers
USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Robert Bonnie
Robert Bonnie is the Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation at USDA. Prior to his confirmation he served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Climate Advisor at USDA.
Before joining USDA, Bonnie was at Duke University first as a Rubenstein Fellow and later as an Executive in Residence at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions working on conservation and environmental issues in rural America.
In 2020, Bonnie also worked with the Bipartisan Policy Center on its Farm and Forest Carbon Solutions Initiative. He was Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at USDA from 2013 to 2017, and a senior advisor to Secretary Tom Vilsack from 2009 to 2013.
Prior to joining USDA, Bonnie was vice president for land conservation at Environmental Defense Fund where he focused on developing incentives to reward stewardship on private lands. Bonnie has master’s degrees from Duke in forestry and environmental management. He lives with his wife, Julie, and daughter, Lilly, in Loudoun County, Virginia.
Under Secretary Bonnie will provide remarks during Monday’s Luncheon.
NRCS Chief Terry Cosby
NRCS Chief Terry Cosby leads a premier federal conservation agency known for its 3,000 field office network that helps farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners nationwide plan and carry out voluntary conservation activities on their operations.
During Chief Cosby’s more than 40-year career with NRCS, he has held numerous leadership and staff positions. He began his career as an NRCS intern in Iowa in 1979 and rose through the agency’s ranks to become its 17th chief on May 24, 2021. Prior to his current position, Cosby served as NRCS’s Acting Chief for several months.
Chief Cosby’s conservation and agricultural roots run deep. He grew up on his family’s cotton farm and attended a land grant university that prepared him well to serve all producers, including those who were historically underserved. His childhood, education, and passion for conservation and agriculture paved the way for him to reach great heights throughout his NRCS career. Prior to being named Acting Chief, he served as NRCS State Conservationist in Ohio for 16 years. His other leadership positions include Deputy State Conservationist in Idaho, Assistant State Conservationist for Field Operations in Missouri, and Area Resource Conservationist in Iowa.
Chief Cosby will be providing a keynote during Monday’s Conservation Forum.
Massachusetts Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer
Hoffer joined the Biden Administration as a Day 1 political appointee, serving as the Acting General Counsel and Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency. She led the EPA’s Office of General Counsel through the transition until November 2021 and continued to serve as Principal Deputy General Counsel. Prior to that, she worked in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office as Chief of the Environmental Protection Division beginning in 2012 and was named Chief of AG Healey’s newly formed Energy and Environment Bureau in 2015. Hoffer oversaw the work of the Bureau’s attorneys on matters including prosecuting civil and criminal enforcement of environmental laws, proceedings before the DPU, energy policy, and defensive cases. She led the Office’s litigation against ExxonMobil for deceiving Massachusetts investors and consumers about the risk climate change poses to Exxon’s business and global financial markets, and the impacts of its fossil fuel products on climate change. Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, Hoffer held senior roles at the Conservation Law Foundation and practiced for many years as a litigator and environmental lawyer at WilmerHale. She also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Magistrate Judge Joyce London Alexander, Boston Federal District Court.
She received a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law, Certificate in Environmental Management from Tufts University, M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts, and B.A. from Hampshire College. In her spare time, she raises a small herd of Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats at her farm in Barre, Massachusetts.
Hoffer will be one of the speakers in the campfire chat during Monday’s Conservation Forum.
Katy Galle, Senior Vice President of Research & Development and Sustainability, Ocean Spray
In this role, Galle cultivates cutting-edge new products to fill the innovation pipeline for Ocean Spray. She also leads our strategic sustainability initiatives, as well as work in Consumer Affairs. Galle is also instrumental in further strengthening Ocean Spray’s industry leadership role and unleashing the power of research and development coupled with food safety and quality assurance.
She comes to Ocean Spray from Dunkin’ Brands, most recently serving as VP of culinary innovation, for both Dunkin’ and Baskin Robbins teams, where she led her team to create a three-year innovation pipeline aligned with Dunkin’s aggressive growth platforms across the portfolio.
Galle is a twenty-year veteran of PepsiCo, where she developed an extensive background in beverage innovation and commercialization and launched many new products globally. She has held prior product development and basic research roles at Seagram’s and Kraft Foods. She has also served on the board of governors for the Flavor Extract Manufacturers Association.
Galle will be providing a keynote during Monday’s Conservation Forum.
Dr. A.J. Kumar, Indigo Ag Vice President of Sustainability Sciences
A.J. Kumar is currently Vice President of Sustainability Sciences at Indigo Ag, leading the overall scientific strategy for agricultural carbon credits, supply chain emissions reductions, and more in coordination with key experts. He has built partnerships across the non-profit, academic, and for-profit domain and worked with farmers and ranchers on testing new technologies and practices in production settings.
Prior to Indigo, Kumar was the Chief Scientific Officer at Jana Care where he built the R&D team in Boston from the ground up, and led the development of multiple low-cost, point-of-care rapid blood tests for chronic diseases, including partnerships with companies such as AstraZeneca.
He has a PhD in Applied Physics from Harvard University and a BS in Physics from Stanford University. He has authored over 20 publications and is an inventor on over 10 patents and patent applications.
Dr. Kumar will be providing a keynote during Monday’s Conservation Forum.
Ashely Randle, Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Comissioner
A fifth-generation dairy farmer, Ashley E. Randle was sworn in as the twenty-first Commissioner by Governor Maura T. Healey on March 6, 2023. She is the first woman to lead the Department and assumed the role after having served as Deputy Commissioner/Legislative and Policy Director since October 2018.
While attending college at Cornell University, Randle developed a deep appreciation for agricultural policy and law. To further her background and understanding of the regulatory aspect of agriculture and farming, Ashley attended Western New England University School of Law. Internships during law school provided a solid foundation and understanding of regional state policies and impacts. Randle is a licensed Massachusetts attorney.
Prior to joining the department in 2018, Randle served as Member Services Director for the Northeast Dairy Producers Association, Inc. (NEDPA) in New York and oversaw membership engagement as well as policy outreach and education in the areas of labor and human resources management, CAFO permitting and water quality, New York Dairy’s OSHA Local Emphasis Program, animal well-being, and other timely matters. Prior to that role, Randle served as Marketing Specialist/Special Projects at the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, where she researched, developed, and implemented a sustainable recognition program for the Maine farming community.
Randle will provide welcome remarks during Monday’s Conservation Forum.
Dr. David W. Cash, EPA Regional Administrator
Prior to coming to EPA, Dr. Cash was the Dean of the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Dr. Cash also spent a decade in Massachusetts state government where he held a range of senior positions, working to transform the Commonwealth’s environmental and energy policy. As Assistant Secretary of Policy in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs in Governor Deval Patrick’s Administration, he was an architect of a range of nation-leading climate, clean energy and environmental justice policies. All of these initiatives were grounded in the notion that wise environmental policy, economic policy and policies for equity can and should go hand-in-hand. He then served as a Commissioner in the Department of Public Utilities, followed by serving as the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection.
In all of these senior roles in state government, he collaborated across government and with communities and the private sector to craft and implement innovative science-based policies around climate, environmental justice, energy, job creation, water, land use, waste management, and grid modernization.
Dr. Cash holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a science teaching degree from Lewis & Clark in Portland, OR, and a BS in biology from Yale.
Dr. Cash will be one of the speakers in the campfire chat during Monday’s Conservation Forum.
Mark Forest, Cape Cod Conservation District Chair
Mark Forest is a Barnstable County Commissioner and Yarmouth Selectman and a longtime resident of South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, where he and his wife, Carol, live and raised their family. Forest serves as Chair of the Cape Cod Conservation District, which advocates for federal funds to restore Cape Cod’s salt marshes, shellfish, and fisheries resources in towns across Cape Cod.
He recently served as Chair of the Housing Assistance Corporation and was a founder of the Community Development Partnership. As a member of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Corporation Board, Forest has helped launch the region’s Blue Economy initiative. Forest also teaches at Cape Cod Community College and is a consultant to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.
Forest started his career in the Provincetown Town Manager’s office. After his five years in Provincetown, he became a top aide to two former Congressman, Gerry Studds and Bill Delahunt, where he was instrumental in resolving numerous groundwater pollution problems on Cape Cod and played a key role in creating health care clinics for veterans and the homeless.
He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts in Boston and received his MPA at Suffolk University.
Forest will be one of the speakers in the campfire chat during Monday’s Conservation Forum.
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