Advisory Council Members

Arthur Carroll, Owner
Arthur Carroll Insurance Agency, Limerick, Maine

Mr. Carroll is the Secretary, Treasurer at the National Association of Crop Insurance Agents (NACIA) and also the owner of the Arthur Carroll Insurance Agency in Limerick Maine. Mr. Carroll has been involved in the farming sector his entire life; having been raised on his family’s poultry and dairy farm. Upon completion of college, Arthur became involved in his family’s farming operation and later served as Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service’s (ASCS) State Director from 1977 to 1981. In 1981 he became the District Director for Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) and worked for three years covering four states inn New England. In 1984 Arthur left the FCIC and began writing crop insurance on over fifteen different crops, spanning an area over seven States. Mr. Carroll is active in many local commodity groups including Cape Cod Cranberry Growers, New England Small Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association, Massachusetts Apple Growers Association and Connecticut and Maine Pomological Societies.

Michael Evanish, Manager
MSC Business Services, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, Camp Hill, PA

Mr. Evanish is Manager of MSC Business Services, a division of PFB Members’ Service Corporation (an affiliate company of Pennsylvania Farm Bureau). He has been with PFB Members’ Service Corporation since 1976. MSC Business Services employs approximately 50 professional and support staff providing services consisting of income tax planning and preparation, write up and computerized records services, complete payroll preparation, benchmarking and consulting. Mr. Evanish has degrees in accounting and marketing from Clarion University, is an IRS Enrolled Agent, and for three years was a member of the IRS Commissioner’s Advisory Committee where he chaired the Small Business/Self-Employed subcommittee. In August 2003, he was appointed to the PA Department of Agriculture’s Dairy Task Force.

Gene Gantz, Regional Risk Management Specialist
USDA Risk Management Agency, Harrisburg, PA

Mr. Gantz grew up on a central PA farm and operated his own dairy and crop farm in the mid 1960s.  He worked for the Federal Crop Insurance Corp., USDA from 1963 to 1983, holding numerous production and management positions.  During the period of 1983 to 2002, he worked in the private insurance industry.  He rejoined RMA/USDA in 2002 to focus on risk management education for producers, working in the states of CT, DE, MD, NJ, NY and PA.  

His passion is to help Eastern U.S. producers better utilize crop insurance-based risk management strategies to better manage their risk exposures, and as a foundation for more profitable crop marketing – both of which increase long term profitability on their farms, benefiting their families and rural communities. Mr. Gantz is a Risk Management Specialist located in Harrisburg, PA, as staff from the Raleigh Regional Office of the Risk Management Agency of USDA.

Kenneth Griswold, Dairy Extension Educator
Penn State Cooperative Extension, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Kenneth E. Griswold, Ph.D., is a Dairy Extension Educator with Penn State Cooperative Extension (PSCE) in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He is responsible for developing educational programs focused on increasing dairy profitability through improvement of production management areas including nutrition, forage utilization, milk quality and animal health.

Ken was raised on a 100-cow dairy in central New York State and received his B.S. in animal science from Cornell University. After working in the dairy feed industry, he completed a M.S. in ruminant nutrition at West Virginia University and a Ph.D. in rumen microbiology at the University of Illinois. Following postdoctoral research in dairy nutrition at Ohio State University, Ken served five years at Southern Illinois University as an assistant professor of dairy management. In 2003, Ken and his family returned to the Northeast for his current position with PSCE.

Dr. Griswold is involved in local, regional, and national dairy nutrition and management activities including chair of the ruminant nutrition program for the 2006 ADSA-ASAS National Meetings. Ken has been an author on over 50 articles in scientific and lay publications and has procured over $1.2 million in grant funding for research and education related to dairy management during the last 7 years.

Brennan Starkey, President
Starkey Farms Company, Galena, Maryland

Mr. Starkey is President of Starkey Farms Company, a fourth generation vegetable and grain operation located in the northern portion of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Specializing in spinach with one thousand acres grown, the farm also produces a variety of vegetable crops for the processing industry. Mr. Starkey graduated from Middlebury College in 1987, and then served two years in the Peace Corps ( West Africa) before returning to the family farm. Mr. Starkey is particularly interested in supporting risk management tools that can reduce the volatility created by wide swings in input and sale prices, as well as the transition of the farming operation and assets from one generation to the next.

Robin Talley, Program Specialist/District Director
USDA, Farm Service Agency, Dover, Delaware 

Ms. Talley holds both an MBA and a Bachelor of Science (Cum Laude) in Agricultural Economics from the University of Delaware.  She served as County Executive Director (1984-1995) with Delaware FSA before moving to District Director (1995-present).  Robin also currently serves as President of the National Association of District FSA Directors.  As FSA District Director, Robin is very familiar with the needs of the grain farmers in the southern part of the Northeast Region.