People

Harriet serves as the Senior Advisor to the FERT Foundation. Harriet was Executive Director of the Nutrients for Life Foundation from 2008 through the 2023 founding of the FERT Foundation. Her previous professional experiences include Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Association, the U.S. Apple Association, and The Fertilizer Institute.

Harriet is passionate about the value of soil nutrients and sees their impact every day on her strawberry, raspberry, blackberry and pumpkin farm. She is a graduate of Cornell University, and native of Coldenham, N.Y. She resides in Hamilton, Va., with her husband and three sons.

Valerie Sutton is the Director of Member Services and Conferences at The Fertilizer Institute where she manages conference registrations, oversees the membership database, coordinates and tracks membership invoices, and manages accounts receivable.

Val joined TFI in 1985. Prior to her current position at TFI, Sutton served as the Secretary to the Vice President of Public Affairs and the Assistant to the Vice President of Economics.

Tom Lynch is Senior Vice President of Government Affairs.  With more than 30 years of experience, he has worked across a range of sectors including trade associations, federal and state government, lobbying, law, and private industry.  Before joining TFI, Lynch was Vice President of Congressional Affairs for the American Short Line and Regional Railroads Association.  As a congressional staffer, he served as Subcommittee Staff Director on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee; Legislative Assistant for U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-MT); and, Legislative Director for U.S. Representative Nick Rahall (D-WV).  As a lawyer, he spent seven years in the Washington D.C., office of Indianapolis-headquartered Ice Miller LLP.  Prior to that, he was Vice President and General Counsel for the National Tank Truck Carriers, the trade association of bulk highway carriers.  Additionally, he has worked in all three branches of state government, and prior to attending law school, he was also Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Allwaste Container Services, Inc. a $51 million division within Allwaste, Inc., a NYSE publicly-traded company. 

Tiffany Thibodeaux Ballow was brought on to TFI as the Events Manager in 2023. She has served as the Louisiana Regional Representative and Program Manager for the Nutrients for Life Foundation since 2013. She enjoys getting back into the classroom educating students and teachers about the importance of agriculture and fertilizer’s role in food production as we feed the growing world population. Growing up in the city, Tiffany understands how urban and suburban students can be detached from the importance of farming and how plant and soil science needs to introduced into these classrooms.

Tiffany’s role at NFL involves developing and presenting teacher professional development workshops and educating students. She creates and maintains teacher and industry relationships in the community as well as distributes Nutrients For Life resources.

Tiffany graduated from the University of New Orleans with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Southeastern Louisiana University with a master’s degree in Psychology before beginning her career as an administrator in the school system. Tiffany resides in Belle Chasse, LA, with her husband and three sons.

Haley joined TFI in 2021 as the Manager of Communications. In 2022, she was promoted to Director of Marketing, Communications, and Programs.

Haley has a dual role, serving as the Regional Representative for the Nutrients for Life Foundation. Since 2012, she has been working with Illinois teachers and professionals in the agriculture industry to reinforce how important fertilizer is as an ingredient in food production. Being raised on a farm, she loves that she can continue to share the importance of agriculture with others. Her roles involve developing and presenting teacher professional development workshops, educating students, creating and maintaining teacher and industry relationships, as well as distributing Nutrients For Life resources.

Prior to her role at Nutrients For Life, Haley worked as the Director of Ag Literacy and Public Relations at the Cook County Farm Bureau and previous to that for a mobile educational tour sponsored by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). She graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in Agricultural Education and Communications with a specialization in news-editorial before beginning her career in the agriculture industry.

Haley serves on various boards and is a graduate of the Illinois Ag Leadership Program. Siergiej is based in Chicago.

Alice McKinnon joined The Fertilizer Institute as Director of Member Programs in July 2021. At TFI, she is responsible for leading, developing, and executing elements of TFI’s member programs and services strategy including sustainability program management and event strategy, design, and management.

Previously, she was the Director of Membership & International Programs for the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA), where she managed member programs as well as its five regional offices in Europe, Latin America, Brazil, Africa, and India.

Alice comes from a family legacy of eight generations of ranching and farming in Texas and grew up on a ranch outside of Austin, Texas. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with minors in Business and English from Texas A&M University.

Peyton Harper is the Director of Retail & Field Sustainability at The Fertilizer Institute.  He assists with developing and directing TFI’s stakeholder outreach programs to promote nutrient stewardship at the field level.

Peyton is a past Tennessee State FFA President and holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business from the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Monica Conway is the Executive Assistant to the President at The Fertilizer Institute where she coordinates communication and scheduling for the office of the president. In addition, Monica provides support to the FERT Foundation.

Monica joined TFI in 2006. Previously, she worked as an executive assistant at the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, a Washington, D.C.-based educational organization.

Melinda Sposari is the Vice President of Membership at The Fertilizer Institute. Sposari leads TFI’s membership team focusing on recruitment,  retention, and engagment. She is a change agent with experience directing TFI through 3 technology transformations. The most recent of which involves implementing the organization’s association management software. Sposari has 10 years of experience studying the fertilizer market and utilizing market analysis to provide strategic direction for TFI’s various statistical reports and membership initiatives. She provided fertilizer market data to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fertilizer Association, and a variety of media publications. Sposari also has 7 years of experience in sustainability through leading TFI’s State of the Fertilizer Industry report initiative which quantitatively measures industry sustainability efforts.

Sposari also earned a Master of Business Administration from Indiana University. She earned a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics degree from Purdue University. Sposari was awarded Honorable Mention on her capstone project which focused on calculating the economic benefit to growers implementing 4R nutrient stewardship practices and the value-added benefits of retailers assisting with 4R nutrient stewardship adoption. She also earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Missouri, and an Associate of Arts degree from Mineral Area College.

In August 2020, Sposari earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation, which is the highest professional credential in the association industry.

Kurt McMillan serves as The Fertilizer Institute’s Chief Administrative Officer. His responsibilities include oversight of TFI’s finance, human resources, membership, conference services, information technology, and office operations. Kurt came to TFI from the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD) where he was Vice President, Business Management, responsible for internal operations.

Prior to NACD, Kurt was with the Contract Services Association (CSA). He joined CSA in 1993 as the Director of Membership Services where his responsibilities included membership recruitment and retention. He later became Vice President, Business Management overseeing the financial, governance, and meetings functions.

Before joining CSA, Kurt was the Assistant Director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), a large D.C.-based museum. Prior to NMWA, Kurt served in the concurrent positions of Assistant Director, Chapters and Membership Division, and Midwest Regional Executive, of Robert Morris Associates (The National Association of Bank Loan & Credit Officers) working with its nationwide network of 140 chapters.

He is a member of American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) from which he obtained a CAE designation, has a BA in Communications and Political Science from Virginia Tech, and an MBA from George Mason University.