Gina Cerrentano is currently completing an agricultural communications degree at Iowa State University while working full-time at KICD Radio (Spencer, Iowa) as the Assistant Farm Director. She expects to graduate in May 2019. She is new to farm broadcasting, but she has prior experience in both radio and public relations, having interned with OsbornBarr in 2018.  Growing up in a northwest suburb an hour outside of Chicago, Cerrentano doesn’t have much experience in agriculture, but as she ventured off to college, she found a passion and interest to learn more.

Kolt Buchenroth (Ohio Ag Network, Columbus, Ohio) is refreshing his NAFB membership after transitioning from a student member to the Broadcast Council. He got his start in agriculture showing beef cattle in 4-H and FFA and was active at his county fair as an exhibitor. While he was in high school, Buchenroth cut his teeth in farm broadcasting at WKTN, a small, locally owned and operated station in Kenton, Ohio. In high school, he worked with Ohio Ag Net and Ohio’s Country Journal as an FFA student reporter covering Ohio’s State FFA Convention. Through that experience, he discovered his passion for farm broadcasting and agricultural communication.

Scott Schultz started working last year as the assistant farm director at WAXX 104.5 radio in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and is expanding into other roles at Mid-West Family Broadcasting’s Eau Claire stations. The long-time print journalist recently joined NAFB after making his broadcasting debut last fall. “I’m excited about this new challenge in my life,” Schultz said. “I’ve known WAXX Farm Director Bob Bosold for many years, and each day I look forward to working with someone so talented and respected.” Schultz earned awards in news writing, feature writing, headlines, and design during more than 40 years in the newspaper business. He was raised on a central Wisconsin dairy farm. His journalism career started while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, which led him to study journalism at the Defense Information School and through Indiana University, University of Missouri, and Pepperdine University.

Gabriel Osborn was born and raised in Coffeen, Illinois, only 15 miles from the station where he works today as agriculture director for WSMI AM & FM (Litchfield/Hillsboro, Illinois). Growing up in a small town of 650 people, farming was right outside the city limits. Both sides of his family come from farming backgrounds. Through his father’s side of the family, he is one generation removed from a six-generation, centennial family farm that was started sometime  in the late 1850s/early 1860s. The farm unfortunately became a victim of the farm crisis of the 1980s.

Ty Higgins, formerly a farm broadcaster for the Ohio Ag Net, has made a move to the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation as its Director of Media Relations. “When the chance of working with such a trusted and well-respected organization like Ohio Farm Bureau comes, you take it,” Higgins says. “I am so glad I did. I have been involved in agriculture my entire life on both of my grandparents’ farms. Those farms no longer exist, but my love for farming and the deep desire to be a part of agriculture remains.”