WINONA LAKE — Grace College welcomes Ted McKinney, undersecretary of agriculture for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, to be the keynote speaker at its second annual Ag Night.

Ted McKinney

The event will take place at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 21, Westminster Hall, 105 9th Street, Winona Lake. Ag Night is hosted by Grace’s agribusiness program, said a news release from Grace College.

“We are excited to have Undersecretary McKinney back to our campus,” said Tobe Forshtay, instructor of agribusiness. “He’s a Hoosier in one of the highest positions in agriculture over our nation. We are excited to have him share with us about our nation’s trade policy,” he added. McKinney will share about China, USMCA, and the outlook for agricultural producers as a result of our increased efforts to open export markets to American agriculture.

For McKinney, his arrival in Indiana will feel like coming home. McKinney grew up in Tipton, Indiana, where he was an active member of 4-H and FFA. He went on to serve as director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture from 2014 to 2017. In addition to his public service, McKinney worked 19 years with Dow AgroSciences and 14 years with Elanco, a subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company.

“We are honored to welcome Ted back to Indiana and onto the Grace College campus,” said Grace College President Dr. Bill Katip. “I’m excited to join current students, prospective students, and ag industry leaders as we learn from his wealth of knowledge in agriculture,” said Katip.

The night will also include an update from Denny Fuller, founder of Humanity and Hope United Foundation (H&H), a nonprofit working to assist underserved villages in remote parts of Honduras. Fuller will share about the Ag Finance class at Grace that worked with H&H in 2019 to build a business plan for a cattle operation in Honduras. The business was launched and is a successful start-up, projected to deliver a revenue stream to H&H for more philanthropic efforts to bless the people of Honduras. Fuller will also announce a new project with the agribusiness program at Grace.

“It will be wonderful to hear from Denny. Our students worked very hard to put the business plan together and I am delighted to learn that the start-up is successful. I’m grateful for our partnership with Humanity & Hope and how the organization connects with our values at Grace–solving real-world problems, preparing students for a career, and developing graduates who lead lives of purpose,” Forshtay said.

For more information about Grace College’s agribusiness program, contact Tobe Forshtay at [email protected], or visit www.grace.edu/major/agribusiness/.