General Session Presenters

Thursday, February 9




Dr. David Kohl, President
AgriVisions, LLC

Dr. David Kohl received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in agricultural economics from Cornell University. For 25 years, Kohl was professor of agricultural finance and small business management and entrepreneurship in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Virginia Tech. He was on special leave with the Royal Bank of Canada working on advanced initiatives for two years, and also assisted in the launch of the successful entrepreneurship program at Cornell University. Kohl is professor emeritus in the Agricultural and Applied Economics Department at Virginia Tech.
Kohl has traveled almost 9 million miles throughout his professional career. He has conducted more than 6,000 workshops and seminars for agricultural groups such as bankers, Farm Credit, FSA, and regulators, as well as producer and agribusiness groups. He has published four books and over 1,500 articles on financial and business-related topics in journals, extension, and other popular publications.  Kohl regularly writes for Corn and Soybean Digest, and other agricultural lending publications.
He has received 11 major teaching awards while teaching over 10,000 students, and 18 major Extension and public service awards from Virginia Tech, Cornell University, and state and national organizations. Kohl is a two-time recipient of the prestigious American Agricultural Economics Association's Outstanding Teaching Award. He is one of only five professors in the nearly 100-year history of the association to receive the award twice. He received the governor's award for his distinguished service to Virginia agriculture, the youngest recipient to receive this award. Kohl was recognized as one of 30 leaders who are the brains behind innovative business management and economic information that agriculture uses today. He also has been named one of seven economists and bankers who challenge the status quo. 
Kohl has addressed the American Bankers Agricultural Conference for more than 35 consecutive years, and has appeared before numerous state bankers' schools and conferences throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the world. He has also been one of the top-rated instructors at the LSU and Colorado Graduate Schools of Banking, and is Chancellor of Farm Credit University, which has trained over 2,000 lenders using an online and face-to-face educational approach.
As facilitator of the United States Farm Financial Standards Task Force and member of the Canadian Agricultural Financial Standards Task Force, Kohl was one of the leaders in establishing guidelines for the standardized reporting and analysis of agricultural producers' financial information on a national and international basis.  The Kohl Agribusiness Centre has been established in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech in honor of his long-term commitment to practical teaching, research, and extension.
Kohl is currently president of AgriVisions, LLC, a knowledge-based consulting business providing cutting-edge programs to leading agricultural organizations worldwide. He is also a business coach and part owner of Homestead Creamery, a value added dairy business in the Blue Ridge Mountains.


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Friday, February 10




Dr. Kristy Archuleta, Associate Professor and Program Director
Personal Financial Planning, Kansas State University

Dr. Kristy Archuleta, LMFT, is an associate professor and program director in the Personal Financial Planning program in the School of Family Studies and Human Services at Kansas State University and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.

Archuleta obtained a B.S. in family relations and child development with a minor in business management from Oklahoma State University, an M.S. and Ph.D. in marriage and family therapy with an emphasis in personal financial planning, and a graduate certificate in personal financial planning from Kansas State University. She is a national and internationally recognized researcher and financial therapist who teaches personal finance, financial counseling, research methodology, and financial therapy courses in the personal financial planning undergraduate and doctoral degree programs. Her research interests and therapy work include integrating interpersonal and relational factors with financial counseling and planning.

Archuleta is a co-founder of Women Managing the Farm, co-founding board member and past president of the Financial Therapy Association, co-founder and current editor-in-chief of the Journal of Financial Therapy, and editorial board member for Journal of Financial Planning. Along with publishing peer-reviewed publications, she has co-edited two books, Financial Planning and Scales and Financial Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice. She has been featured in media outlets, such as MoneyLife, Glamour, Parade, Korean Journal of Financial Planning, NPR Marketplace, Chicago Tribune, NY Daily News, CBS Money Watch, Kansas City Star, Investment News, forbes.com, onenewsnow.com, usatoday.net, and filife.com, and Mid-America Ag Network. 

Archuleta is a recipient of the College of Human Ecology Myers-Alford Outstanding Teaching Award at Kansas State University and the Oklahoma State University College of Human Sciences Distinguished Alumna Award.






Kriss Avery, Owner
Rainbow Sound, St. Louis, Missouri

Kriss Avery grew up on a 303-acre diversified farm in Riley County among fields of alfalfa, sorghum, wheat, and cattle. She and her two sisters drove tractors and did lots of chores. Kriss was so good at gathering eggs, she could enter the chicken house barefoot and exit with dry feet!
The farm had a picturesque timber area. Every summer it transformed into a picnic wonderland, with barbecue, hand-cranked ice cream, and a merry-go-round enjoyed by 4-H and church groups. The farm was lost to the 1966 expansion of Ft. Riley—which in retrospect made the few photos and movies of community life extra precious.
Inspired by her mother’s piano playing and by a favorite music teacher at her rural high school (RCHS - Go Falcons!), Kriss floated down river to study music at the University of Kansas, then later finished her degree in music composition from UMKC Conservatory of Music in 1978. Her musical compositions, encompassing classical, jazz, and the new field of electronic music, were performed at music festivals around the nation.
After a brief stint helping start and market a software company, Kriss moved on to follow her dream: composing music for film. Her debut assignment was a short film with the self-revealing title, Head Lice. (Hey, it’s a start!) Numerous educational films followed on history, biography and national parks, including one on The Flint Hills. Most fun—scoring music and sound effects for two Kansas State University recruitment videos (Go Cats!).
As her company, Rainbow Sound, she teamed up with Kansas filmmaker Kevin Willmott on his first feature film, Ninth Street, a drama about black life in Junction City, starring Martin Sheen and Isaac Hayes. She also taught Film Sound at KU. Kriss won two regional Emmy Awards (Audio and Composer, 2000) for Water & Fire, a Story of the Ozarks, a 90-minute documentary for PBS-affiliate KCPT featuring the music of Celtic singer, Connie Dover. An award-winning five-hour series, Uniquely Kansas City: a History of the Arts in Kansas City, was a Midwestern first for being shot in HDTV.
Moving to St Louis in 2002, Kriss directed a documentary, Ivory Perry: Pioneer in the Struggle Against Lead Poisoning (2006: SLFS Best Doc). A long-distance project for UNDP Moscow, Living with HIV: the Human Cost of Social Exclusion, won a 2009 Telly Award. Kriss currently serves on the Lindenwood University Digital Cinema Advisory Board, in Missouri.


Back to the topic of family memories…
In 1988, with their 50th Wedding Anniversary approaching, Kriss sat her parents down with a tape recorder to tell stories about their 1938 honeymoon, driving dusty roads from Kansas to Niagara Falls. Eight hours later, she ran out of tape! The resulting Golden Memories Vol.1 was given out to guests and is now available for streaming on the web. More recently, she recorded her teenage grandkids for StoryCorps

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