Agriculture Leadership Program Celebrates 40 Years
By Robin Sutton Anders
Growing up on a tobacco farm in Mount Olive, Reggie Strickland watched his father and grandfather take on leadership positions within various boards and organizations in their communities. “I’d always heard the saying, ‘If you’re not at the table, then you’re on the menu,’” Strickland laughs.
But it wasn’t until he went through the two-year Agricultural Leadership Development Program in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at NC State University that Strickland, too, felt empowered to get involved. Soon after graduating, he joined the NC Soybean Producers Association Board. Now, he’s a member of many commodity boards in the state, as well as a national soybean board and soybean export council.
The leadership program helped him understand that everybody has a story, and that great leaders understand the importance not only of giving those stories a voice, but also of listening to others’ stories. “We all have opinions and ideas, and even though we’ll differ on things, we need to be able to share.”
When Bill Collins, a professor emeritus with CALS, helped start the program 40 years ago, the first class was made up entirely of tobacco farmers and was funded by Philip Morris USA. In 2008, Collins worked with the NC Tobacco Trust Fund Commission to establish a $5 million endowment that now primarily funds the program.
Collins is proud of the variety of backgrounds and agricultural sectors represented in today’s class, which comprises farmers from a wide range of commodities and ag related organizations. The 11 participants in the 2024-26 cohort work across the ag industry, including Cooperative Extension, ag sales and ag insurance. Some participants are in their 20s, and others are in their 50s. Many of these individuals also operate their own farms in addition to their main jobs. And more women have gotten involved in recent years.
“Formerly, we were only able to attract one to two females to be in the program, and now recent cohorts have been up to 50 percent female,” Collins says. “Because North Carolina is the third-most ag-diverse state in the nation, it’s important for our participants to represent all of our state’s commodities.”
Joy Morgan Fleming, a 2014-16 cohort participant, serves as the NC Tobacco Trust Fund Commission Agricultural Leadership Program’s current director. She facilitates monthly three-day sessions across the state, which give participants a window into the breadth of North Carolina’s agricultural commodities.
“The goal is to further develop personal and professional leadership skills,” Morgan explains. “We want to be sure they graduate having a better understanding of themselves and organizational leadership. In the program’s earlier years, all meetings were held in Raleigh. Upon Hugh C. Kiger Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics Emeritus Blake Brown’s leadership, the program started traveling across the state, setting a stage where participants could work together without feeling siloed to their communities.”
Additionally, participants visit Washington, D.C., to learn more about the policy focus of agriculture and how to advocate for their needs with their congressional representatives. They also take trips to Texas and Brazil, one of the United States’ largest competitors for many commodities, to broaden their agricultural awareness.
Larry Wooten, former president of the NC Farm Bureau, was in the program’s first 1984 cohort.
“For me, it made the industry of agriculture bigger than the biggest field and longer than the longest row I was planting in Pender County,” he says. “The experiences and the trips — the investment that the college made in me through that program — instilled in me a willingness to give back.”
Wooten still appreciates all he learned. “It gives you a different perspective on your own ideas — not to make you abandon your positions and your thoughts, but certainly to broaden them.”
For Wooten, that played out through the art of compromise. “Tobacco policy was intense and controversial. As a young man, it was one of the first times I was involved in intense negotiations on issues. I could see right off that I wasn’t going to get everything I wanted, and others weren’t going to get everything they wanted,” he says. “My group learned how to have those discussions in an agreeable way.”
Morgan says that today’s program continues to emphasize communication skills. “A large majority of farms are family-owned operations, which adds another dynamic. Not only is farming their main occupation, but they live in the same house as the people they’re working with. There has to be effective communication and consensus building.”
In this year’s cohort, Savannah Strickland follows in her dad, Reggie’s, footsteps. It feels only natural for her to attend a program she’s heard about her entire life. “I was four when he went through it, and if it wasn’t for that program, we wouldn’t be as close as we are today.”
Savannah references the early mornings and late nights required of farmers. “A lot of farmers miss out on their kids’ games, recitals, bedtime stories. I think the leadership program shifted his perspective on what was important,” she says. “When he was around, he was very present.”
Eventually, as Savannah transitions into the primary leadership role for their Mount Olive family farm, she’ll be prepared.
“This program is helping me think about what I want the operation to look like in five to ten years,” she says. “One of the biggest takeaways I’ll have is a network of friends and business associates. I’m learning about the industry as a whole, and in the future if I have a question, I’ll have a huge list of resources.”
