Allewelt is president emeritus of Tri-Valley Growers and has been chair of the UC Agricultural Issues Center Advisory Board since its beginning in 1985. He is a native Sacramentan, attending UC Davis before graduating in agricultural economics at UC Berkeley. His career in food processing began with appointment as general manager of Turlock Cooperative Growers which later merged to form Tri-Valley Growers. Active in industry affairs and volunteer activities with public higher education, he served on the founding board of CoBank and as chair of the Commission on Agriculture and Higher Education.

Karen Caplan

Caplan is president and CEO of Los Angeles-based Frieda's Inc. The daughter of entrepreneur Frieda Caplan, she has developed the corporation to an annual sales level approaching $23 million, pioneering in quality control and merchandising of exotic fruit and vegetable products. A leader in the produce industry, she was the first female president of the Fresh Produce Council. She has served on the boards of the UC Davis Institute of Governmental Affairs, the UCD Cal Aggie Alumni Association and was recently appointed to a 3 year term as director of the Federal Reserve Bank Board in San Francisco. She earned her BS degree in agricultural economics and business management at UC Davis.

Dan Dooley, Chair

Dooley's law firm represents many agricultural and water interests in San Joaquin Valley including public irrigation and water districts, private ditch companies, river associations, joint powers authorities, and farmers. His firm also provides services on environmental insurance coverage litigation. Previously, Dooley served as chief deputy director of the California Department of Food and Agriculture and as chair of the California Water Commission. He has also served the National Council for Agricultural Research, Extension and Teaching; the Special Trade Representative's Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Trade for Cotton; and is president of the Visalia Chamber of Commerce as well as a member of the board of directors of the Valley Children's Hospital.

Cornelius L. (Corny) Gallagher

Cornelius L. (Corny) Gallagher is senior vice president and agribusiness executive for Bank of America's Consumer and Commercial Banking Credit Risk Management Administration. Gallagher chairs the Risk Management Association's National Agricultural Lending Committee and is on the California Bankers Association Agricultural Lending Committee. He also chairs the Bank's California Political Action Committee. Gallagher is treasurer of the California 4-H Foundation Board, a member of the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo School of Agriculture Advisory Council and the Santa Clara University Advisory Board of the Institute of Agribusiness. He serves on the California Chamber of Commerce Agriculture Committee, the California Agricultural Roundtable, and is on the board of directors of The Agricultural Network, the California State Fair Agricultural Advisory Council, and the California Food and Fiber Future Advisory Board. Gallagher graduated from Iowa State University with a B.S. degree in animal science.

Betsy Marchand

Marchand served six terms on the Yolo County Board of Supervisors retiring in 1996. Her special interests and activities include water, land use, and transportation issues as well as criminal justice and health issues. Currently, Mrs. Marchand is President of the State Board of Reclamation appointed by the Governor in 2001. She is also a Tribal Gaming Commissioner for the Cache Creek Indian Bingo and Casino and a founding board member of the Yolo Basin Foundation. A member of a pioneer California family, she received a B.A. from Pomona College (Phi Beta Kappa) and an M.A. degree from Vanderbilt University, where she studied as a Ford Foundation Fellow. Mrs. Marchand has taught high school English and social studies in both Southern California and Northern California.

Milenda Meders

A native Californian and a lifelong rancher, Meders manages a family field/row crop and almond operation and, with her husband, a cow-calf operation in the Central Valley. She graduated from California State University, Fresno, after majoring in dairy husbandry with minors in biology and journalism. She is active in numerous farm and community organizations and advisory groups, is director of the Madera County Cattlemen's Association, and has been livestock director of the Chowchilla County Fair and a board member of the Chowchilla Water District. A founder of Friends of Agricultural Extension, she continues to lead this nonpolitical support group in Fresno and Madera Counties.

Michael Mendes

Michael Mendes is president and chief executive officer for Diamond of California. Before joining Diamond, Mendes managed the international marketing and sales division of Dole Food Company, where he introduced Dole dried fruit and nuts to the European and Asian markets. Prior to working with Dole, he was a consultant to several California food companies, developing international marketing plans for the produce and packaged food industry and implementing trade activities, primarily in the Pacific basin.

Mendes received a master's degree in business administration from the University of California, Los Angeles. He serves on the President's Advisory Council of the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) and the Executive Council of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC), and was appointed in 2003 to the board of directors of the California Chamber of Commerce. He has been a member of the NorCal Young Presidents' Organization chapter since 1998.

Brenda Jahns Southwick

Jahns Southwick began her professional career as a legal counsel and legislative advocate for the Bureau of Reclamation in Washington, DC. She developed water law as her specialty. She transferred to California where she continued her work in water law, also drafting federal legislation on California water issues. She spent several years developing a water specialty for the law firms of Landels, Ripley, and Diamond and for Nossaman, Guthner, Knox and Elliott. Prior to joining the California Farm Bureau Federation's Legal Division where she works on water issues in the Department of Environmental Advocacy, she was a deputy attorney general for the State of California.

Dorcas Thille McFarlane

Owner/operator of J.K. Thille Ranches and a fourth generation farmer, Dorcas Thille grows avocados, lemons and vegetable/flower seeds in Ventura County. She serves as a board member of the Calavo Avocado marketing Cooperative and the Saticoy Lemon Cooperative, as president of a local water commission board, and has been on the advisory board of the Hansen Trust since its inception in 1993. She is a member of UC President Atkinson's Advisory Commission on Agriculture.

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