Join us for the 10th Annual
Feb. 10-12, Fairmont Hot Springs
It’s time to celebrate! Not only are we looking back on 10 years of gathering, we are celebrating the amazing connections that have grown throughout the years. This conference is about food, farming and beyond, from leadership to lentils. Join us for an exciting Montana Farmers Union’s Women’s Conference where we will work on building new connections, community, and celebrate together.
Registration is now closed, but stay tuned for more information on our Eastern Montana Women’s Conference TBA!
more infoagenda purchase add ons
2023 Speakers & Presenters
Rebecca spent over a decade in the organizational development industry, helping companies of all sizes, types, and industries make good on their commitment to make their people their top priority. She’s most passionate about encouraging people to steward their gifts well and she strongly believes this is how we create meaningful change and a lasting impact.
Rebecca Undem
gROWING SMALL TOWNS
Courtney is the Vice President and co-owner of Northern Ag Network providing Agriculture news and information to farmers and ranchers across Montana, Wyoming and the Western Dakotas since 1975. In 2021, along with the Montana Department of Agriculture the Northern Ag Network created the award-winning “Beyond the Weather” media campaign to normalize mental health conversations in rural culture.
Courtney Brown Kibblewhite
NORTHERN AG NETWORK
Sarah Elkins is your guide to uncovering the right personal stories for the right audiences so executives, leaders, advocates, public speakers, and job seekers can clearly and effectively demonstrate their character, values, and vision. She is a storyteller, keynote speaker, communication coach, author and professional musician.
Sarah Elkins
Elkins consulting:your stories your brand
Mary Auld is a journalist, podcast producer, and teacher from Missoula. Her work focuses on telling vivid stories that help connect people to the earth. Mary grew up in the boreal forest of interior Alaska and the hay fields of upstate New York. A lifelong writer, she developed a connection to agriculture as a goat farmer, FoodCorps service member, and school gardens manager.
Mary Auld
Storytelling & Connecting to Our Landscape
Becca Skinner is a photographer and writer based out of Bozeman, Montana. Her work as a photojournalist aims to increase understanding of the issues and mechanisms of the natural world through connecting audiences to impactful and inspiring images. The photos she makes are centered around the intersection of conservation and adventure storytelling, anchored on the importance of protecting the places we explore.
Becca Skinner
STORYTELLING & CONNECTING TO OUR LANDSCAPE
Kate Stephens’ mission to bridge the gap between farmers and consumers started when she was 15 years old driving combine. Kate started a YouTube channel called Kate’s Ag – Farm to Fashion to help bridge the gap between farmers and consumers by educating people about how their food gets to their table and the origins of their fashion products.
Kate Stephens
STORYTELLING & CONNECTING TO OUR LANDSCAPE
Jeanette Jergens is a self taught Western artist based in Shelby, Montana. As a lifelong resident of Montana, Jeanette has learned how to not only live by the cowboy lifestyle, but create and maintain the tradition of Western Art. Her works include a variety of medias.
Through studying techniques and learning the tools of the Old West, she has bridged a medium that brings forward the tradition to modern times and flair.
Jeanette Jergens
STORYTELLING & CONNECTING TO OUR LANDSCAPE
Roubie is invigorated by her career as an educator with MSU Extension. “Every day is an adventure” whether planning programming, conducting educational events, or reflecting on the outcomes and impacts of her programs. She is the 4-H and Family and Consumer Science Agent in Valley County and is committed to helping individuals and families flourish through education. Roubie has a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science and a Master of Education both from MSU. Roubie also operates a cattle ranch in Valley County.
Roubie Younkin
MSU Extension & Real Colors Assessment
Amanda Moss is a self taught photographer who lives in Ledger, MT on a farm with her husband and two sons. She has been a photographer for X years. She specializes in family and senior portraits, events, and special occasion photos.
Amanda Moss
Professional Headshots
Abigail Curtis is 17 years old and from Sheridan, Montana. She is a youth leader in multiple organizations around her community and for the state of Montana. She has been involved in 4-H for the last ten years, and is currently serving as the Publicity Chair for the Montana 4-H State Ambassador Officer Team. She is also an active member of FFA, filling the secretary role for the Ruby Valley FFA Chapter. Abigail breeds sheep as a project for FFA. Some of her favorite things are skiing, music, and the great outdoors.
Abigail Curtis
Waves of Change Youth Leadership
Calla Donnelly is a junior at Three Forks High School and has grown up learning from different forms of leadership in
4-H, FFA, homeschool coops, choir, horse drill team and church. Serving as her FFA Chapter’s current President has given her more opportunities to do what she loves: feed her curiosity through asking questions and getting to know others’ inspirations, strategies, and perspectives on any subject, particularly ones relating to agriculture and impacting communities. As the granddaughter of a dairy farmer and a fourth generation Montana FFA member, her goal is to be a state FFA officer so she can model leadership qualities to youth across the state.
Calla Donnelly
WAVES OF CHANGE
YOUTH LEADERSHIPLinda is a retired clinician, teacher and school counselor. She is currently the Director of the Native Connections Grant at the Helena Indian Alliance. Their grant strives to serve Native American youth aged 12 to 24. The Helena Indian Alliance provides suicide prevention and cultural training and mentoring.
Linda Kinsey
waves of Change
Kelsey grew up on a farm and ranch between Billings and Laurel, Montana.
Kelsey has been very involved in 4-H and FFA throughout her childhood and high school career. She graduated from Montana State University with two degrees in agricultural education and elementary education. After graduating from MSU, Kelsey started with the Montana FFA Foundation as the Director of Operations. Kelsey now works remote from Lewistown, MT and travels the state for the Montana FFA Foundation. She is excited for the journey with the FFA Foundation and to stay involved in agricultural education.
Kelsey Proue
Waves of change
Claudia Galofre-Krevat is a Colombian-born, Montana-based chef and culinary educator. Chef Claudia has become a passionate ambassador for pulse crops, taking inspiration from the farmers around her and highlighting their local origins and global flavors.
In collaboration with Timeless Natural Food, a Montana company that sells lentils, chickpeas, and heritage grains, she has created hundreds of recipes, hosted dozens of sold-out special events, and traveled the state with her Lentil Caravan cooking classes. She currently hosts almost free community dinners, The Montana Lentil Table, promoting lentils, chickpeas, and dried peas, as well as local non-profits, small businesses, artists, dancers, and musicians, in an ever-changing setting.
Claudia Galofre-Krevat
Passports to the World
Dr. Mary Burrows obtained her PhD in Plant Pathology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She started her position as the Extension Plant Pathology Specialist at Montana State University in 2006 and currently serves as the Associate Director of the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station. Her extension and research activities focus on diseases of field crops including cereals and pulses. She directs the Schutter Plant Diagnostic Laboratory, the Regional Pulse Crop Diagnostic Laboratory, and has an active applied research program.
Mary Burrows
Montana Ag Experiment Station
Marie Dorval is a second-year Ph.D. student at Montana State University. Originally from Haiti, her research mainly focusses on studying the effect of intercropping on disease severity and dispersal of Ascochyta rabiei of Chickpea and Fusarium avenaceum of field peas. She has a master’s degree in Horticultural Sciences with a concentration in plant breeding from University of Florida, Gainesville, and a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural sciences from University Quisqueya, Haiti. Before moving to MSU, Marie worked with high-value crops including maize, sorghum, and black beans as a research assistant at University Quisqueya, Haiti.
Marie Dorval
MSU PH.D. Student
Dr. Uta McKelvy is the Assistant Professor Extension Plant Pathology at Montana State University in Bozeman. Uta earned her PhD in Plant Pathology from Montana State University in 2020, where she worked on dynamics of the wheat streak mosaic disease complex in the agricultural landscape. Uta works as plant disease diagnostician in the Schutter Diagnostic Lab. Her outreach efforts focus on diseases of field crops and integrated disease management strategies. Her current research focuses on developing prediction tools for foliar diseases of wheat in collaboration with the National Predictive Modeling Tool Initiative.
Uta McKelvy
Assistant Professor Extension Plant Pathology at MSU
Erika Consoli is a Brazilian-Italian national. She received a double bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil and ISARA-Lyon in Lyon-France, where she also got a master’s in agriculture. After that, Erika got a MSc in Agro and Environmental Nematology at University of Gent in Belgium and University of Kiel/ E-nema GmbH in Germany. After her MSc, she worked for a couple of years in the Plant Pathology group at the Swiss Centre of Agricultural Research in Switzerland. She visited Montana during a summer trip in 2019, and surprisingly, moved to Montana in January 2021 to pursue a PhD in Plant Sciences / Plant Pathology.
Erika Consoli
Plant Sciences & Plant Pathology
Darci Jones and her family run Fresh Roots Farm, a diversified certified Organic seed and berry farm at the foot of the Mission Mountains in Western MT. Fresh Roots Farm specializes in cool and warm season annual and biennial seed crops (flowers and vegetables), strawberries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries. Darci is extremely passionate about the farm’s organic seed enterprise and believes organic seed production brings a unique niche enterprise and biological diversity to our farm, not to mention amazing flowers and smells. Darci received her Master’s in Social Work from the University of MT and a BA in environmental studies from Prescott College.
Darci Jones
Fresh Root Farms
OPTIONAL ADD-ON
Professional Headshots
You’ve been meaning to schedule a professional headshot, right? This is your opportunity! We are offering this Conference add-on at a FRACTION of the cost of a professional headshot, just $20 for a single pose!
OPTIONAL ADD-ON
Real Colors Personality Assessment
Take this workshop for yourself or as part of a team! The Real Colors® is a dynamic workshop experience using a personality type test. The goal is to provide participants with the skills to:
– understand human behavior – uncover motivators specific to each temperament – improve communication with othersThe workshop will take place BEFORE the Conference begins, Friday Feb. 10 from 1-4pm and includes the workbook. Be sure to add to your registration before checkout!
PANEL: CONNECTING TO OUR LANDSCAPE &
The Art of Storytelling
Learn from these innovative and talented storytellers about what makes rural life tick and how to frame connection to the land in a way that draws people in- into farming, agriculture, and small-town living, and helps shape an understanding of where our food comes from. Moderated by Mary Auld, Assistant Director of the MT Media Lab, Mary is an audio producer and teacher in the West.
REGISTERBECCA SKINNER
Becca Skinner is a farmer, photographer, writer and National Geographic Young Explorer based out of Bozeman, Montana.
KATE STEPHENS
Kate Stephens is working on bridging the gap between farmers and consumers thorugh farming and fashion. Her family farms near Dutton.
SARAH ELKINS
She is a storyteller, keynote speaker, communication coach, author and professional musician.
JEANETTE JERGENS
Jeanette is a self taught Western artist based in Shelby, Montana. Through studying techniques and learning the tools of the Old West, she has bridged a medium that brings forward the tradition to modern times and flair.
What’s the Conference like..? Check some of last year’s highlights!
A group of over 60 diverse folks gather each year for a weekend to expand knowledge and skills, build community and new friendships, and to lift each other up. Are you ready to join?
registration infoYOUTH LEADERSHIP PANEL
“Waves of Change”
The women’s conference is about uniting women in Ag, but more importantly it’s about developing strong leaders and communities. We’re bringing together Montana leaders for this panel from across industries: NGOs, public service, and business.
What people are saying about the Women’s Conference…
“What a wonderful experience, to meet and share ideas with so many other women across Montana. The people, the food and the hot springs were all great… it was just what I needed!”
“It’s so fun to connect with a group of amazing, inspiring women from all over MT. I wish there were more opportunities like this!”
“The Women’s Conference isn’t like other farm conferences, about what kind of feritilizer to put on what kind of crop. It’s about builidng you back up as a person.”
Let’s connect
Have questions about attending the Women’s Conference with Montana Farmers Union? We’d love to hear from you. PLEASE NOTE: The MFU Women’s Conference does not provide a trade show or offer booth spaces. We encourage you to sign up to attend, network, and take advantage of building one-on-one relationships.