The ACE Ambassadors would like to introduce a “Face of ACE” to recognize and celebrate our members who have been a part of ACE for more than 2 years! We hope you enjoy getting to know Michelle Olgers!

Michelle Olgers is a communications professional with a career focused on helping people access information that improves their professional and personal lives.

As communications officer at the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), she combines her communications expertise and passion for agriculture to advance FFAR’s vision of affordable, nutritious food produced on thriving farms. Previously, she served as the inaugural marketing and communications director for Virginia State University’s College of Agriculture, where she built and led a communications team supporting Extension and research programs.

Michelle has held leadership roles with national and regional land-grant communications organizations. She is a graduate of Virginia’s agriculture leadership program, VALOR, and the national LEAD21 leadership program. A member of ACE since 2015, she received the 2020 ACE Leadership & Management Learning Community Award of Excellence. Outside work, she is a long-distance hiker/walker and enjoys international travel, cooking and exploring the world of wine.

Why was ACE the choice for you?

The people! ACE members have become professional friends, mentors and colleagues whom I continue to learn from in formal and informal ways. The professional development opportunities are second to none, too.

What has been your most enjoyable experience as a member?

I was honored to receive the 2020 ACE Leadership & Management Learning Community Award of Excellence. Six years prior to that, I had stepped into the world of higher education, Cooperative Extension and agricultural research for the first time, while building a communications team and developing new processes to support a land-grant university’s College of Agriculture. Receiving the award was a real “wow” moment for me. There wasn’t a roadmap for many of the things we were trying to accomplish, so I often looked to my ACE colleagues across the country for ideas, inspiration and practical advice. Receiving recognition from my peers in ACE felt like validation that the work we were doing mattered and that we were headed in the right direction.

What are your future aspirations?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what retirement might look like for me. I’m still several years away from making that transition, and until then, I want to use my communication skills and experience to make a positive difference in people’s lives and help move the agriculture sector forward. When I do retire, I can envision a part-time role promoting or educating others about the wine industry, or perhaps organizing and leading walking tours that help travelers experience the history, culture and character of destinations around the world. In many ways, those pursuits would allow me to continue doing what I’ve always enjoyed most, helping people discover, learn and connect.

The ACE Ambassadors would like to introduce an “OG Face of ACE” to recognize and celebrate our members who have been a part of ACE for more than 20 years! We hope you enjoy getting to know Craig Woods!

I am Craig Woods, Video Production Manager with the Office of Communications Management at Oklahoma State University. I have been an ACE member for 25 years.

Why was ACE the choice for you? 

ACE has been a valuable resource for me because it covers the full breadth of communications within higher education agriculture. Some of my favorite conference workshops have actually been outside of the video production area of expertise. Learning how professionals in academia or social media approach and solve their challenges was both interesting and gave me ideas I could take back to my institution. In addition, ACE gave me leadership opportunities through Learning Communities, Board positions and conference planning. In addition, many of our organizations are either flat or have limited advancement. Becoming a Leadership Committee chair or helping plan the Memphis conference gave me an opportunity to practice and prove my leadership skills.

What has been your most enjoyable experience as a member? 

Without a doubt, my favorite part of ACE has been the people I have met. They have become lifelong friends. I know they will always be resources I can rely on in my career. Finding someone doing a similar job in another state gave me insight into how to do my job better. Plus, many of these professional colleagues have also become personal lifelong friends.

What advice would you give current members?

I hope to impart that sense of camaraderie and professional growth to the younger generation of ACE members, that was important to me at the start of my career.

The ACE Ambassadors would like to introduce an “OG Face of ACE” to recognize and celebrate our members who have been a part of ACE for more than 20 years! We hope you enjoy getting to know Dee Shore!

I’m Dee Shore, a failed 2021 retiree. I went back to work within six months and now serve as communications lead with a fast-growing effort called the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative. I work with over 100 faculty affiliates from nine North Carolina State University colleges, telling the story of their groundbreaking interdisciplinary research to solve complex challenges related to food and agriculture.

With experience as a newspaper reporter, I joined NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1989 in a temporary position. My boss told me I’d need a master’s and more experience to get a permanent job, so I went to work for the university alumni magazine and news services office, taking one graduate class at a time until I finally finished my degree. In 1995, I rejoined CALS as an Extension specialist, later serving as writing team leader, extension coordinator, department head and media relations specialist.

 Why was ACE the choice for you? 

I consider myself an heir to Frank Jeter, a former NC State communications pioneer and early ACE leader who claimed to have had the most interesting job at NC State. I think that of my own job, too, and I joined ACE to keep myself learning and growing in my career. Learning from ACE colleagues and others willing to take creative risks, I evolved from my roots in writing, editing and media relations, becoming an early adopter of tools and technologies that have reshaped the communications landscape – from the internet and html to content-management systems, social media, podcasting and more.

What has been your most enjoyable experience as a member? 

One of the early things I did as an ACE member was to take part in the Media Relations Made Easy in the Big Easy workshop. I frequently had to train Extension faculty and staff, and the workshop notebook was a true gold mine that I drew from for decades. The workshop also introduced me to a city that my family has returned to year after year for music and merriment.

 What advice would you give current members? 

Lean into the wisdom of fellow members, and don’t be bashful when it comes to sharing your own. We all have valuable lived experience in overcoming the day-to-day challenges faced by communicators. (And if you have a chance to get to ACE conferences, take time to explore surrounding areas. You won’t regret it! I’ve gotten to explore Niagara Falls, Lake Tahoe, Monterey Bay, the Great Salt Lake and  the Grand Canyon – and that’s just for starters.)