Jon Newkirk

Jon Newkirk, a Washington State University Extension Economist, has program experience in ag and rural transportation, grain marketing, community building, and farm and risk management. Jon serves as Director of the WSU Western Center for Risk Management Education. The Western Center serves the 13 Western States and the US Pacific Islands with a results/outcome focused regional grant program designed to help farm and ranch families succeed.

In addition to his work as an economist, Jon’s professional career includes a wide range of experiences: refugee relief in SE Asia; self employed auto mechanic; registered public interest lobbyist; and Extension educator at the county level. His organizational leadership roles include positions with the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, Director of the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center, as well as serving as County Chair for the WSU Extension Spokane and Adams County Extension Offices.

John Hewlett

John Hewlett is a Farm/ranch Management Specialist at the University of Wyoming and member of the regional RightRisk and Risk Navigator teams. He also coordinated past efforts of the regional WIRE program.

He grew up in Washington State, where he worked eight years (four as foreman) on a large stocker-cattle/crop operation. John holds a BS degree in Agricultural Business from Montana State University and a M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics from Oregon State University.

He came to the University of Wyoming, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in 1987. Since then he has been involved in a number of state and regional extension programs, receiving four Western Agricultural Economics Association awards for outstanding extension programs, two UW Cooperative Extension awards for creative excellence, one American Agricultural Economics Association award for professional excellence, the Jim DeBree Excellence in Cooperative Extension award, and six other regional or national awards.

John’s current extension interests include risk management, integrated management, enterprise assessment, financial analysis, recordkeeping, and applications of technology in agricultural.

He and his family operate a small farm/ranch 20 miles outside of Laramie, Wyoming where they have several commercial small animal enterprises.

Ramiro Lobo

Ramiro Lobo has been a Small Farm and Agricultural Economics Advisor with the University of California Cooperative Extension in San Diego County since 1997. His primary responsibility is to conduct research and educational activities to support small-scale agricultural producers in San Diego County.

Ramiro’s work has focused primarily on educating small scale producers on topics related to agricultural business and risk management, new crop development and evaluation, new entry grower and startup information, market development through agricultural tourism and direct marketing efforts, and farm and pesticide safety education.

His current research efforts has focused on evaluating several cultivars of pitahaya or dragon fruit for adaptation to Southern California climate and as a commercially viable crop alternative for small scale farmers in California. These efforts have resulted in increased acreage dedicated to pitahaya or dragon fruit production, increased awareness among consumers, and increased availability of the fruit at local farmers markets and retail outets in Southern California.