What are your duties as a loan officer?  
Manage and grow the DFA Financing portfolio across the SEAC and SWAC (also a small piece of MEAC and CAC). To be a resource for members on financial and business matters in order to help return value to our member owners.

What was your first paying job?  
Grass cutting and landscaping. I got paid $5 cash and could work as many hours as the weather allowed.  At 12 years old I thought I hit the jackpot.

What is the most exciting part of being a Loan Officer?  
I love visiting with members and hearing their vision for the future of their dairy. I get to crunch the numbers and see if that vision has the possibility of being financially successful. The exciting part is a year later, or sometimes years later, coming back to the dairy and seeing that vision has become a reality and knowing that I played a very small role in making that happen.

How did you get started at DFA?  
I started working in membership as a field staff employee in Southern New Mexico in September of 2008.

What is your favorite food? 
 That’s a hard question. It would probably be my mother’s homemade chicken noodle soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. Country fried steak with sawmill gravy would be a close second.

What three items would you take to a deserted island?  
Knife, fire starter, cooking pot. I assume we would not be found or would be there for days, so instinctually I’m going to bring survival items.

What is your favorite part of working with DFA members?  
Watching their families and dairy farm’ s grow by helping provide financing to keep families on the dairy.

What inspired you to work in the dairy industry?  
I grew up in West Tennessee and it was predominantly row crop, hogs, and chickens. I went to college in another part of the state and worked on a dairy. I was always inspired by the work ethic of dairy farmers. Luckily, I got to go to work for DFA years later and learn the business, marketing, and regulatory side of the industry. That increased knowledge just fueled my passion even more for dairy. 

What is your favorite dairy product?  
Promised Land midnight chocolate milk. It’s made from Jersey cows’ milk and has more butterfat and protein than regular whole milk. The easiest way to describe it is like drinking melted chocolate ice cream.