Board of Directors - Iowa
Rick Morain, PhD
Editor and Publisher Jefferson Bee and Herald
bherald@netins.net
Rick Morain is the Editor-Publisher of the Jefferson Bee and Herald newspapers in Jefferson, Iowa. He is also a past legislative committee chair of the Iowa Newspaper Association, and past chair of the Professional and Occupational Regulation Commission for the State of Iowa. Rick has also served as past president of the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, Greene County Development Corporation, and the Jefferson Rotary Club.
Rick has received various honors and awards for his years of service including the Iowa Newspaper Association’s Master Editor-Publisher Award and the Distinguished Service Award. He was also presented with the ABC Award (Above and Beyond the Call) from the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce.
Morain graduated with honors with a bachelor’s of art degree in American Civilization from the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He received his master’s and Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Rick and his wife, Kathy, reside in Jefferson. They have four children, Dan, Molly, David and Matthew.
Mary Holz-Clause
Value-Added Agriculture, Iowa State University
mclause@iastate.edu
Mary Holz-Clause is Program Manager for the Value Added Agriculture program at Iowa State University, in Ames, IA. She assists value added ag businesses with market research, feasibility studies, business plans and other key components of business start-up and expansion. She has worked on numerous feasibility studies in the area of meat and fish processing, grain processing, wine, cheese processing, and with a number of specialty food products. The Value Added Agriculture Program also provides training and international business development for several projects in Egypt, Croatia, Armenia, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Romania and Bulgaria.
In addition, she is co-director of the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center (AgMRC). The AgMRC is a joint project of Iowa State University, Kansas State University and the University of California. The Center provides electronic-web based information for producers wanting to start value added ag businesses or expand existing businesses. The Website is www.agmrc.org.
Prior to joining ISU, Holz-Clause held several positions with ag based companies and was with the Iowa Department of Economic Development, where she helped to launch the first in the nation ethanol consumer marketing campaign. She headed up the research for the department helping to locate businesses and industries to the state and was involved in numerous international marketing trade missions. She holds degrees from Iowa State University in agricultural business, ag education and public administration. She and her husband Reg, farm and have a cattle feedlot near Grand Junction, Iowa and have three daughters.
