Forever Green Initiative unveils new leadership structure

September 6, 2024

 

The Forever Green Initiative is at a pivotal moment. While we continue to grieve the loss of our Co-Founder Dr. Don Wyse, we are optimistic and excited about Forever Green’s direction and momentum. The process of passing the leadership torch has been underway for more than two years and has now been accelerated by Don’s untimely passing. 

Leadership of the Forever Green Initiative is evolving in the following ways.

Dr. Mitch Hunter named co-director.

In recognition of his increasing responsibility for the strategic oversight and day-to-day operations, Dr. Mitch Hunter was recently named the co-director, serving with Dr. Nicholas Jordan as the executive leaders of the Initiative work at the University.

Recruiting a third faculty co-director.
In the coming months, we will initiate a process of recruiting a third co-director from among currently faculty members involved in Forever Green-related research. We expect this new co-director will devote roughly 20% of their time to shared leadership of Forever Green.

Full-time staff leadership for our three programmatic areas is in place.

  • Research & Development (R&D) — Mitch Hunter will continue to lead the R&D program, including supporting the crop teams and managing the R&D grant program. We will be searching for someone to manage the grant program in the near future.

  • Commercialization, Adoption, and Scaling (CAS)  — Colin Cureton will continue to direct our efforts, leading a team of 4 dedicated staff focused on commercialization strategy, advancing on-farm adoption, and developing value chains and markets for Forever Green crops. Other members of the CAS team include Andrew Leach, Katharine Chute, Matt Leavitt and Sienna Nesser.

  • Partnerships and Outreach  — Ann Kirby has joined our team as the inaugural Director of Partnerships and Outreach to provide much-needed communications and engagement capacity and foster the larger Forever Green Partnership (FGP). 

The Forever Green Initiative Executive Committee continues to provide strategic oversight and leadership continuity.

Comprised of the co-directors, staff leadership and elected faculty representatives, this decision-making body currently has a primary focus on the R&D program. We are exploring the structure needed to provide the same kind of strategic guidance for Commercialization, Adoption and Scaling. Current members of the Forever Green Initiative Executive Committee include:

  • Nick Jordan, Co-Director
  • Mitch Hunter, Co-Director
  • Colin Cureton, Director of Commercialization, Adoption and Scaling
  • Ann Kirby, Director of Partnerships and Outreach
  • George Annor, Elected Executive Committee Member
  • Prabin Bajgain, Elected Executive Committee Member
  • Josh Gamble, Elected Executive Committee Member
  • Jess Gutknecht, Elected Executive Committee Member
  • Jake Jungers, Elected Executive Committee Member
  • Kevin Smith, Elected Executive Committee Member


This new executive leadership team balances deep experience with new energy, and for the first time, all three programmatic areas have dedicated staff leaders. The elected faculty members of the Executive Committee are deeply committed to the success of Forever Green. 

Forever Green is organized as a polycentric, cross-sector innovation platform with key components housed outside of the University — research collaborators, commercial partners, and, importantly, the leadership and membership of the formal Forever Green Partnership. This broader partnership advances policy and resource development initiatives that support the research, development, adoption, scaling and commercialization efforts that are driving the utilization of continuous living cover crops forward.

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