As the Producer Programs Intern, Gavan utilizes his passion for agriculture and conservation, as he helps expand producer enrollment and outreach efforts within The SustainAg Network.
Gavan previously worked with Millborn Seeds, where he primarily worked in the warehouse packaging orders while creating new ways to operate more efficiently within the company since January of 2023. Additionally, his background includes volunteering for the NRCS of Brookings County, being an active member of the Ida County Iowa Pheasants Forever Chapter and is the treasurer of the South Dakota State University Pheasants Forever Chapter.
Gavan is currently a junior at SDSU working towards his degree in Ecology/Environmental Sciences.
Dr. Kristina Porter serves as a technical advisor for AgSpire, bringing deep expertise to our livestock focused programs.
She has spent most of her veterinary career focusing on reproduction to maximize performance and profitability for her clients. She has complemented this focus with low-stress animal handling to create the healthiest, most efficient animal possible.
Dr. Kristina has worked alongside members of the Beef Reproduction task force to develop synchronization protocols for the industry. This earned her their “Service to Industry Award” in 2022 for her contributions.
Dr. Kristina is from eastern South Dakota and returned to the family ranch after veterinary school. Dr. Kristina received her BS in Animal Science from Kansas State University in 2008 and her DVM from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State in 2010. She completed the Executive Veterinary Program from the University of Illinois in 2023.
She and her husband, also a veterinarian, practice in Huron, South Dakota while raising their four daughters and working on the family ranch.
Drew Slattery, with his extensive experience in the regenerative agriculture and corporate sustainability realm, is committed to enhancing the impact on natural resources and the climate across global supply chains.
Throughout his career, Drew has partnered with leading agricultural and food brands to evolve their supply chains for greater sustainability and reduced carbon footprints. This has given him a broad range of expertise – from remote sensing, to ag media, producer engagement, behavior change programming, and corporate sustainability – and experience working with the beef, dairy, row crop, and specialty crop sectors.
Raised on a cow-calf operation in Texas and spending most of his life immersed in the beef seedstock industry, Drew brings a producer-centered approach that deeply influences his commitment to supporting agricultural producers in their path to continuous improvement. Additionally, he spent time as an agriculture extension agent with the US Peace Corps in Zambia.
He received a master’s degree in agriculture from Oklahoma State University and a bachelor’s degree in communication from Tarleton State University.
Austin grew up helping on the family century farm and now operates that farm with his uncle raising hogs, corn, and soybeans. Austin has seen the effects of incorporating conservation practices on his own farm and uses those experiences to help others incorporate practices on their operations. Previously, Austin worked as a Sustainability Agronomist working with producers across the country helping bring value to their operations through sustainable practices.
Austin holds a bachelor’s degree in Agronomy from Iowa State University. He is also a Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) and Technical Service Provider (TSP) through NRCS, covering multiple practices and states.
As the Director of Carbon & Ecosystem Markets, Zach promotes company strategy and client success by developing and executing services at the intersection of MRV technologies, carbon accounting protocols, and ecosystem markets.
Throughout his career, Zach has focused on carbon issues for stakeholders across the agriculture value chain and in a wide array of commodities. His expertise in farm-level carbon accounting, MRV platform usage, voluntary and compliance market schemes, science-based targets, ESG reporting, and strategic planning allow him to assist industry groups, food and ag companies, and farmers on their sustainability goals.
Zach’s passion for agriculture started at Woods Hole Consortium, where he studied with scientists to evaluate carbon sequestration techniques in row crop systems. Prior to joining AgSpire, Zach managed sustainability services at Pinion Global. There, he advised clients on designing, measuring, and evaluating carbon strategies down to the farm level. Zach also has experience in social impact measurement and social entrepreneurship.
Zach has a BA in Environmental Science from Middlebury College and is an accredited verifier for both dairy and ethanol projects under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard and the Oregon Clean Fuels Program.
Sara Arsenault serves as Senior Director of Client Relations at AgSpire, bringing her keen view of the agriculture industry to current and future client projects.
Prior to joining AgSpire, Sara led the federal policy division for California Farm Bureau (CAFB), where she managed the federal policy team and developed the organization’s federal legislative and regulatory strategies. She also served as the Vice President of the Almond Alliance for a short time thereafter.
Sara also spent nearly five years in Washington, D.C., where she worked on Capitol Hill and at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), representing agriculture leaders from all fifty states and four U.S. territories at the federal level.
Sara is a native of Northern California where she currently resides. She began her academic career at Modesto Junior College and obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in animal science and meat science and technology at Texas A&M University.
Derek is passionate about conservation and natural ecosystems – a passion he uses to guide his work as Senior Conservation Agronomist at AgSpire. He has a deep respect for mother nature and the symbiosis organisms have with one another in the environment. In his work, Derek seeks to harness these natural relationships for crop production so that environmental impacts can be mitigated while still producing high quality commodities for the growing world’s population.
Prior to joining AgSpire, Derek spent more than 15 years working with landowners and corporations to design, manage, and validate research trials, maximizing short- and long-term crop outputs. Always eager to learn, he is continuously expanding his knowledge of soil health, chemistry, biology, technical advancements in crop production and integrated pest management (IPM).
Derek holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from South Dakota State University and a master’s degree in Agronomy from Iowa State University. He is a Certified Crop Advisor (CCA), Technical Service Provider (TSP) for the NRCS, and is also a small business owner.
In his spare time, Derek enjoys the outdoors, coaching youth sports, and spending time with his family.
Julia drives AgSpire’s creative strategy with a mission to inform and inspire audiences around improved social and environmental impacts.
That mission is rooted in her family’s row crop farm in the Texas Panhandle, where she currently resides. Through her work, Julia seeks to support farmers and rural America, while contributing to sustainable and resilient global food systems.
With a background in advocacy communications and cause marketing, Julia brings a proven record leading multi-channel marketing strategies to drive brand reputation, foster partnerships, and mobilize audiences – having worked to advance education, international health, and sustainable agriculture globally.
Julia is pursuing a master’s degree in international agriculture from Oklahoma State University to complement her master’s degree in corporate and non-profit communication from Johns Hopkins University and bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Texas Christian University. She also has a professional certificate in Sustainable Capitalism & ESG from Berkeley Law Executive Education.
Vivian leads AgSpire’s program operations, with a strong focus on achieving tangible outcomes and delivering meaningful results.
Growing up on a farm in Norway, Vivian knows the intricacies of working with the land and the vast opportunities for producers, the environment, and society at large. This spurred an interest in sustainable development that has guided her education and career since.
Prior to joining AgSpire as our inaugural hire, Vivian worked in sales at two indoor vertical farming startups, before moving into economic development for the State of Wyoming in an entrepreneurial ecosystem development role.
With a bachelor’s degree in Renewable Energy from the University of Life Sciences in Norway, she then moved to Wyoming to pursue her MBA in Energy Management at the University of Wyoming.
