As Administrator, Diane Dysart manages KRC’s financial resources, budgets and bookkeeping files. She also tracks mailing lists and contribution records. Diane and her husband, Fred have three children, eight horses, and three dogs and live in rural Netawaka.

Diane Dysart - Administrator - Whiting ddysart@rainbowtel.net

Mary Fund - Communications Director/
Clean Water Farms Project Coordinator, Whiting
ksrc@rainbowtel.net

Mary Fund is the Project Director for KRC's Clean Water Farm-River Friendly Farm Project, which provides planning assistance and limited cost-share to farmers and ranchers wanting to improve water quality on their farms. She also is the editor of KRC's newsletter, Rural Papers, and handles KRC's communications about farm and rural policy issues. Mary represents KRC in the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group and serves on the Coordinating Council for this national group. She is one of three KRC staff members who work in the Whiting office, and therefore answers general questions and inquiries to KRC and points callers to the right "expert" on or off staff. She and her husband, Ed Reznicek, and their two children, own and operate a 400 acre certified organic farm in Nemaha County as 4th generation family farmers. Mary's personal interests include vegetable gardening, as well as raising flowers, and reading and writing.

Connie Pantle provides public relations support to the Clean Water Farm-River Friendly Farm Project through news releases and profiles of RFF-CWFP farmers. She is interested in livestock, environmental and water quality issues, especially as they relate to the survival of the small, family farm. Connie and her husband, Jason, live on a small acreage just outside Effingham where they garden and raise their three children, John, Lainey and Franklin. The children enjoy their horse and mule, as well as the family’s blue tick coondogs, barn cats, chickens and an occasional hog or two.

Connie Pantle - Clean Water Farms Information & Education Coordinator
cpantle@rainbowtel.net

Dale Kirkham - Clean Water Farms Field Organizer
Eureka
dalekirkham@msn.com

Dale Kirkham assists farmers and ranchers in SE and SC Kansas with the Clean Water Farm-River Friendly Farm Project self-assessment and projects that improve water quality and related natural resources on their land. His special interests include livestock and grazing management, protection of native prairies, and wildflower identification. He and his wife Nancy operate a small ranch in the southern Flint Hills where they raise registered Brangus cattle.

Troy Schroeder works with the Clean Water Farm-River Friendly Farm Project, helping farmers identify potential environmental problems and find cost-share programs to address them. He is interested in helping small farmers find ways to be more successful. His specialty is incorporating wildlife habitat into farming operations in ways that are compatible with production. He is also interested in Federal Farm Policy and assists the KRC in that arena. Troy and his son Steve operate a no-till farming operation on the Barton/Rush County line.

Troy Schroeder - Clean Water Farms Field Organizer, Albert
troyas@gbta.net

Ed Reznicek - Clean Water Farms Field Organizer, Goff amerugi@jbntelco.com

Ed Reznicek is a half-time field organizer for the Clean Water Farm-River Friendly Farm Project with emphasis on relocating and redesigning livestock wintering facilities and in planning resource conserving crop rotations. He also operates an organic field crop and beef cattle farm in Nemaha County. Ed enjoys coaching youth soccer as a hobby.

Jason Schmidt comes to KRC fresh from graduate school at Clemson University in South Carolina where he was researching forage finished beef production. Jason’s area of expertise is grass and forage based systems.

Jason grew up on a family dairy farm near Newton, Kansas, and graduated from Bethel College where he studied international rural development, which exposed him to concepts of environmental and economic sustainability in agriculture. After college he worked for three years with an array of farming systems in South Africa, North Korea, Colorado and New Mexico. These farming systems included small-scale community dairy and garden projects, cover cropping systems, organic produce and grain production, school gardens, and grass-based livestock production. In his graduate program studies, Jason researched summer grazing systems for producing high quality forage-finished beef or how specific forage species altered animal performance and carcass quality, and health attributes in the fat profiles of beef cattle. Jason and his wife live in Topeka, where she attends Washburn Law School.

Jason Schmidt - Clean Water Farms Field Organizer, Topeka
Jason_schmidt20@hotmail.com or 864-417-0272

Mercedes Taylor-Puckett is the Project Coordinator for KRC's Farmers Market Project, which supports the 75+ markets in Kansas through conferences, workshops and the www.ksfarmersmarkets.com  website. Mercedes also coordinates KRC's Farmer Educators, master farmers offering mentorships and field days; the Kansas Farmers Market EBT Program, enabling markets to accept food stamps; KRC's Farmers Market Promotion Program, workshops and mini-grant opportunities; and the Rural Center's Kaw River Valley local foods program.

Mercedes involvement with local food dates back to the mid '90s when she sold heirloom tomatoes at the Downtown Lawrence Farmers Market. In 2004, she became the DLFM coordinator and maintained that position until joining the Kansas Rural Center in October 2008.

Mercedes lives in the hills of southern Jefferson County with her husband and two daughters.

Mercedes Taylor-Puckett -
Farmers Market Project Coordinator, McLouth
mercedes.taylorpuckett@gmail.com