Speakers

Jim is the CEO of ACSESS, which is the non-profit management entity that conducts the day-to-day business of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), what we often refer to as the "Tri-Societies." Jim's background is not in agriculture or even science; his career has been spent in non-profit management, having served as CEO of the National Court Reporters Association and the National Investor Relations Institute. As such, Jim holds the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential and hold a B.A. from James Madison University.

Samantha Shoaf Miller grew up on the beach in Pensacola with two lawyer parents and two future lawyer sisters, spending breaks with her dad, a cotton farmer in West Tennessee. Miller fell in love with agronomy during her first semester at UF, where she learned, worked, and led as SASES President in the department of Agronomy-Plant Science and as a 2008 Golden Opportunity Scholar. Miller entered a straight to PhD program in plant breeding at Purdue University and was later selected by ASA-CSSA-SSSA as their post-doctoral Congressional Science Fellow. During her Fellowship she served in the US Senate as a key staffer to a member of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry. When her Fellowship concluded, Miller Oklahoma State University as tenure track teaching faculty. Miller has continued her active role with ASA-CSSA-SSSA serving at Chair of the Agronomic Science Foundation and in many committee roles over her 22-year membership. Miller worked at Beck's Hybrids and at Corteva Agriscience. Today Miller lives in suburban Noblesville, Indiana with her (former SASES President) husband and two children, working as Director of Corporate Business Development in the Purdue College of Agriculture.

Gebisa Ejeta is Distinguished Professor of Plant Breeding & Genetics and International Agriculture (Emeritus), Executive Director of the Center for Global Food Security, and Presidential Fellow for Food Security and Sustainable Global Development at Purdue University. His career has been devoted to education, research, and international development, with contributions in human and institutional capacity building, in technology development and transfer, as well as in policy advocacy for science, technology, and innovations that change livelihoods. He has been highly honored for his significant contributions in science and development, including being awarded the World Food Prize in 2009, the US National Medal of Science from President Biden in 2023, and inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2026.