Rooted in Teamwork: Midwest Team Spring Training

Connecting Work with Passion

by Jean Brokish, Midwest Sr. Program Manager

When people ask me what I like most about my job, the answer is easy: the people. The Midwest Team is a mix of scientists, artists, thinkers, doers, farmers, foodies, travelers, and dedicated, passionate people. While our paths may be different, each of us is showing up every day to support farmers and make Midwest agriculture a bit more resilient.  

In spring, we gathered in Southwest Wisconsin for a staff training that highlighted various “adult education” themes and gave each team member an opportunity to share ideas, learn from each other, connect personally, and have fun.

Teamwork: Connection in the Field

by Helen VanBeck, Midwest Sr. Program Manager

Inspired by the success of Big 10 teams as March Madness champions, Helen VanBeck led a session on the importance of teamwork, highlighting lessons the Midwest team can learn from basketball. Communication, collaboration, and trust aren’t just the building blocks of successful sports team. They’re critical components of working with farmers to promote sustainable farming practices, helping them plan for the succession of their farmland, or supporting them as they navigate the challenges of applying for financial incentive programs.  

Other lessons from the court include knowing when to pass the ball, remembering to run the play, and setting up your teammates for success. AFT Midwest team members often wear many hats and play many roles, so knowing how to share the workload, center the org’s mission and goals, and help each other be successful is crucial to being a winning team on the “court” and in the field!

Adult Education: Learning About Mental Models

by Julie Larsen, Midwest Sr. Program Manager

Much of our work in AFT’s Midwest region centers on connecting with farmers around practices and decisions that shape the long-term health and viability of farmland. From cover crops that build healthier soils, to more efficient fertilizer uses for better water quality, to farmland protection through easements and support for generational land transitions, the goal is the same: helping people make informed, practical decisions that strengthen their farms. 

The staff in the Midwest region support a mix of events such as on-farm field days, virtual webinars, and informal gatherings like our coffee chats — meeting farmers, landowners, elected officials, and agricultural advisors where they are. Alongside these efforts, we provide technical assistance to help turn ideas into action on the ground. 

This season, we had the opportunity to deepen our approach to education and outreach through a training led by Rob Myers, Director of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at the University of Missouri and Regional Director of North Central SARE Extension Programs. The focus was on how adults — especially farmers — learn and how we can design programming that encourages better engagement and has longer-term effects after the event. 

In the first session, Dr. Myers introduced the idea of “mental models” — the blend of knowledge, lived experience, and often unconscious assumptions that shape how people interpret the world. In agriculture, these mental models influence how farmers understand new information, weigh decisions, and respond to change. Recognizing that each farmer brings a different mental framework into a conversation has helped us rethink not just what we share, but how we share it. 

To bring the concept to life, Midwest Senior Farmland Program Manager Angie Doucette and Midwest Farmland Associate and Land Transfer Navigator Anna Skeine led the team through a role-playing exercise centered on a farm family working through the difficult process of transitioning land to the next generation. The exercise highlighted how values, relationships, and long-standing expectations of each family member can influence even the most practical decisions about farmland. 

The training continued with a shift from theory to practice. In the next session, Dr. Myers emphasized the importance of hands-on learning and real-world application in helping concepts stick. To demonstrate this, Midwest Conservation Agronomist Torey Colburn led the team through a soil slake test. Soil from a conventional system was compared with soil managed using practices such as no-till and cover crops. The two soil clumps were submerged in water: small explosions burst out of one soil sample as it broke apart, while the other held together, demonstrating stronger aggregate stability and healthier soil structure. The visual difference brought soil health principles to life in a way that data alone often cannot. 

As summer brings the busiest season for field days, workshops, and outreach across the Midwest, the training is helping shape how we make connections in this space. With a deeper understanding of current best practices and how experience reinforces knowledge, we are refining our approach to create more meaningful, practical, and lasting impact.

Relationship Building: Growing Roots Together

by Floreal Crubaugh, Midwest Farmland Associate

Since moving to Minnesota last year, I’ve been acutely aware that my pin on our Midwest Team’s ‘Where We’re Located’ map is so very far away from the rest of the team. I never overlap with AFT colleagues at local events up north, and I feel a pang of envy when I see “in-person meeting” on someone’s calendar. Ironically, I am in fact not alone in being alone; many on our team live a several-hour drive or a short flight away from the nearest colleague. 

Traveling from our far-strewn homes and seeing faces usually relegated to the Teams screen nurtures the roots of connection by sharing joy, curiosity, strategy, and knowledge. There is simply no virtual substitution for walking in a cover-cropped field and asking Agronomist Torey Colburn what we’re stepping on or participating in a slam-dunk teamwork activity organized by Senior Program Manager Helen Van Beck. And as far as I’m aware, there is no technology to simulate feeding a newborn calf, much less to share the excitement and laughs that come with giving a gamboling, wobbly-kneed calf a big baby bottle.  

Despite having a maximum drive-length tolerance of 15 minutes (a shamefully un-Midwestern trait), I was glad to have the five-hour drive home from our training. It gave me time to reflect on how the winding roads of our personal passions, interests, personalities, and histories converged to bind us to the land and the people that steward it. Heading home through the cornfields of Iowa, I had a comforting thought: this place is in good hands because I work with people who care. We returned to our desk seats from our car seats renewed, reconnected, and with new ideas brewing. The things we learned— through programming and by simply being in each other's presence—sparked new seeds of practice in each of us.