Susan E. Stokes has been FLAG’s Executive Director since November 2005. She joined FLAG in January 2002 and became its Legal Director in June 2002. Susan’s work at FLAG has included supervising its litigation, including serving as lead counsel for the Campaign for Family Farms in the pork checkoff litigation, Michigan Pork Producers Association v. Campaign for Family Farms, 348 F.3d 157 (6th Cir. 2003), and authoring many of FLAG’s amicus briefs. Her work has also focused on all aspects of corporate consolidation in agriculture and contract farming. Susan has been a frequent presenter on agricultural issues and co-authored “The Eighth Circuit Grants Corporate Interests a New Weapon Against State Regulation in South Dakota Farm Bureau v. Hazeltine,” 49 S.D. Law Rev. 795 (2004).
Prior to joining FLAG, Susan was a partner at the law firm of Sprenger & Lang, where she focused on civil rights class actions in the employment arena. While at Sprenger & Lang, Susan was lead counsel on groundbreaking employment discrimination class cases, including Beckmann v. CBS, 192 F.R.D. 608 (D. Minn. 2000), and Kosen v. American Express Financial Advisors. Before moving back to Minnesota to join Sprenger & Lang, Susan was a civil litigator at the San Francisco law firm of Pillsbury Madison & Sutro (now Pillsbury Winthrop).
After leaving the Iron Range where she grew up, Susan received her Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Olaf College in 1984 and her law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1989. She is admitted to practice in numerous district and appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Susan has consistently been named a “Super Lawyer” by Minnesota Law & Politics since 2000, and was selected as one of Minnesota’s top 40 appellate lawyers in 2005.
Lynn A. Hayes was a founding attorney at FLAG. After 16 years, she left FLAG in the spring of 2002 to move to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After working remotely for three years for the Office of the Monitor reviewing African-American farmers claims in the racial discrimination case against USDA, Pigford v. Veneman,and acting as "Of Counsel" for FLAG, Lynn is again working as an attorney for FLAG.
During her tenure at FLAG, Lynn was lead or co-counsel in several lawsuits, including Coleman v. Lyng (national class action lawsuit against the Farmers Home Administration); the Minnesota Milk Producers Association's challenge to federal milk marketing order provisions; and the pork checkoff case, among others. She presented hundreds of workshops for farmers and their advocates on agricultural credit, contract-farming, environmental, commodity pricing, and anti-trust issues. She assisted farm organizations in developing proposed regulations and legislation at both the state and federal levels in many of these same issue areas. Lynn received her BA in English from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and her JD from Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC.
Stephen Carpenter has been a staff attorney at FLAG since 1993. He is a graduate of Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, and of Stanford Law School. At Stanford he was active in the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, was a Stanford Law Review executive editor, and later received a Skadden Fellowship which brought him to FLAG.
Stephen's work at FLAG has centered on debtor-creditor issues, disaster assistance, guaranteed loans, discrimination in agricultural lending, federal commodity and conservation programs, sustainable agriculture, and the problems of farmers contracting for livestock production. Since January 2000, he has served as Senior Counsel in the Office of the Monitor in the Pigford case.
Stephen has conducted frequent FLAG trainings for farmers, advocates, and attorneys and has authored and edited several FLAG materials and publications. He is also author of "Discrimination in Agricultural Lending," Clearinghouse Review (1999); "Farm Service Agency Credit Programs and USDA National Appeals Division," Drake Journal of Agricultural Law (1998); co-author, along with Randi Ilyse Roth, of "Family Farmers in Poverty: Guide to Agricultural Law for Legal Services Practitioners," Clearinghouse Review (1996), and is the author of "Farm Chemicals, Soil Erosion, and Sustainable Agriculture," Stanford Environmental Law Journal (1994).
Karen Krub first came to FLAG in 1995 as a summer intern, primarily exploring production contract issues. She then received a Skadden Fellowship which allowed her to return as a staff attorney in September of 1996. Since joining FLAG, Karen has worked primarily in the areas of administrative law, agricultural credit, disaster assistance, and farmer-owned agricultural business development.
Karen grew up in the Skagit Valley of northwestern Washington, but not on one of the area’s many farms. Instead, her family fished for salmon in the coastal waters of Washington and Alaska. Although at ten she had big plans for a boat of her own, Karen continued with school, earning a B.S. in Resource Development from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, in 1991, and graduating from Yale Law School in 1996.
Jill Krueger joined FLAG's attorney staff in 1999. Jill earned an undergraduate degree in Peace and Global Studies from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana (Phi Beta Kappa). Growing up with a father who always had a large garden in the back yard and with friends whose parents were being laid off in the 1980's by a farm equipment manufacturer in her Wisconsin hometown gave her glimpses of both the struggles and the joys of family farmers. Jill earned her law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1998 (Order of the Coif, Law Scholar Fellow) while working part time in the local office of the Legal Services Corporation of Iowa . After a brief sojourn as an Assistant Attorney General for the state of Minnesota, Jill came to FLAG.
At FLAG, Jill has worked on a variety of issues, including agricultural credit, disaster assistance, production and marketing contracts, federal farm and conservation programs, and organic agriculture. Jill was a co-author of recent editions of Farmers' Guide to Disaster Assistance, and was part of the FLAG team that collaborated with other organizations to produce Assessing the Impact of Integrator Practices on Contract Poultry Growers. Jill's interest in farming extends beyond the legal arena. She is currently enrolled in a Farm Beginnings class offered by Minnesota's Land Stewardship Project.
Jennifer Jambor joined FLAG as a staff attorney in the summer of 2007. Before moving back to Minnesota to join FLAG, Jennifer was an associate at the Oakland and San Francisco based law firm of Leonard Carder, where she focused on using litigation, alternative dispute resolution, and community organizing to help employees and unions advocate for workers’ rights. Prior to working at Leonard Carder, Jennifer was a Field Attorney for the National Labor Relations Board.
After leaving the Twin Cities where she grew up, Jennifer received her B.A. degree from Mills College in Oakland, California in 1995 and her J.D. degree (Summa Cum Laude) from Golden Gate University in San Francisco in 2001.
Currently, Jennifer is the contact person for FLAG's recent publication, The Farmers' Guide to Wind Energy.
Ms. Xyooj joined Farmers’ Legal Action Group in 2006 as the Hmong Community Outreach Coordinator. In her position, she is helping to forge contacts with the Hmong farming community so FLAG may better serve Hmong farmers. Hli has conducted outreach in various forms, presenting in workshops as part of the Minority and Immigrant Farming Conference and distribution of educational materials to Hmong farmers and service organizations.
Hli earned her undergraduate degree in International Relations, Political Science, and Asian Studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1999. She graduated from Hamline University School of Law in 2007 and is finishing up her Master of business Administration from Hamline University School of Business. She also obtained her Certificate in Dispute Resolution from the Dispute Resolution Institute at Hamline University School of Law. Hli worked as an investigator for the Public Defender’s office prior to attending law school, and was a summer law clerk for the Public Defender’s office in 2006.
Hli was born in Thailand but raised in Minnesota. Her family has had a long tradition of gardening. Her mother and grandmother continue to maintain a backyard garden for Hmong herbs and lemon grasses and rent land for vegetable gardening annually.
Tony Brown joined FLAG as Development Director in the fall of 2005. His experience helping social service and human rights nonprofit organizations with fundraising and communications is built on more than 20 years as a newspaper reporter and columnist, mostly in New York, and in corporate communications, mostly in his native Minnesota. A University of Minnesota Journalism alumnus, Tony has, through various circumstances, baled hay, branded cattle, milked a cow, and grown vegetables – although never professionally.
Debby Juarez joined FLAG as a part-time receptionist in 1994, and has been the "voice of FLAG" ever since. Over the years her responsibilities have grown extensively. Now as the office manager, Debby's main goal is to make sure FLAG runs smoothly by ensuring that office systems are effective, efficient and responsive. Debby is also FLAG's webmaster, and production editor of FLAG publications and marketing materials. Her responsibilities also include maintaining FLAG databases, and providing administrative assistance to the attorneys and executive director.
Rita Gorman Capes joined FLAG in 2003 and is the Legal Secretary and Assistant to the Executive Director and the Development Associate, splitting her time among a wide variety of duties in each position. Since leaving Beloit College (Phi Beta Kappa), Rita lived and worked within an international spiritual community and later began her career in the field of legal support.
Although Rita was born and raised on Chicago’s southeast side, she has lived and worked on farms in Illinois, Indiana and Colorado, including a conventional family farm in the heart of America’s corn belt and an intentional spiritual community actively practicing sustainable, organic farming methods in the fertile fields of central Indiana and the arid foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Mike Bruns joined FLAG in 2004 as our information technology staff. He bought his first computer, an Atari ST, in 1987 and has been manipulating bits and bytes ever since, including ten years as a database developer for a variety of corporate and non-profit clients. Mike graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in Humanities.
Thomas Prokosch joined FLAG in August of 2007 as finance manager. Previously he spent 23 years as finance director at Jewish Family & Childrens Service of Minneapolis.
Tom graduated with a BA in accounting and a MBA from the University of St. Thomas. He was born and raised on a farm in Redwood County, Minnesota which his brother still farms.
Lois Wood, President
Ms. Wood joined FLAG's board in 1994 and is the Executive Director of Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. which serves clients in 65 counties in central and southern Illinois. From 1986-1996, she was an attorney with the Illinois Family Farm Law Project, during which time she was lead counsel in several successful agricultural law cases and wrote numerous articles on farm law issues. In 2005, Lois received the Distinguished Service Award from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. She was the 2003 winner of the national Kutak-Dodds Prize for advocacy on behalf of the poor, she was presented the Chief Judge Richard A. Hudlin IV Memorial Award in 2002, in memory of the first African-American Chief Judge in southern Illinois, and she was the 1994 recipient of the Attorney Recognition Award given by the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois. (Location: East St. Louis, Illinois)
Thomas W. Mitchell, Vice-President
Professor Mitchell joined FLAG's board in 2001. He is a tenured Associate Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison, WI. Professor Mitchell has done extensive work in the area of land tenure within poor and minority communities. He received his undergraduate degree from Amherst College, his J.D. from Howard University, and his LL.M from the University of Wisconsin upon completion of the William H. Hastie Fellowship. Before pursuing his LL.M., Thomas was a litigation associate at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., and he clerked for Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the District Court of the D.C. Circuit. At DePaul, he teaches teach Property, Remedies, and a seminar class in Community Economic Development. Thomas also serves as the director of the Center for Rural & Urban Community Development and its accompanying externship program the Community Development Externship Network. The externship program places law students from U.S. and foreign law schools with public interest law firms and community-based organizations in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America that do community development work on behalf of poor, rural and urban communities. (Location: Madison, Wisconsin)
Dale Reesman, Secretary
Mr. Reesman has been a member of FLAG’s board since the beginning. He is an attorney in private practice in Boonville, Missouri. He has been active in representing small family farmers and consulting in farm credit cases since the credit crisis began in the early 1980s. Dale was also part of the Coleman litigation team. (Location: Boonville, Missouri)
David J. Frederickson, Treasurer
Mr. Frederickson joined FLAG’s board in 1999 and is currently the Outreach Director for Agriculture, serving in the office of U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota). Mr. Frederickson served as President of the National Farmers Union from 2002-2006. He grew up on a family farm in Murdock, Minnesota. After earning his bachelor’s degree in education from St. Cloud State University, he taught special education for eight years before he returned in 1974 to operate his family’s farm. From 1992 to 2002, Mr. Frederickson was President of the Minnesota Farmers Union. From 1986 to 1992, he served in the Minnesota Senate. During his six-year tenure as a state senator, he served as vice-chairperson of the Taxes and Tax Laws Committee and vice-chairperson of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee and was chairperson of its Rural Development Subcommittee. He is a member of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Food Security Advisory Committee, was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology; and serves as chairman of Farmers Union Enterprises Inc. (Location: Roseville, Minnesota)
Betty Bailey
Ms. Bailey
joined FLAG’s board in 1997. She has served as executive director of Rural Advancement Foundation International–USA (RAFI-USA) for fourteen years. RAFI works to sustain family farms, rural communities and food security. Betty comes from a long line of Appalachian farm women. She has 35 years of experience in organizational development and nonprofit management. From 1982 to 1990 she directed the Farm Survival Project. The project operated crisis hotlines; trained farmers, lawyers and community organizations; and promoted institutional response and policy changes. She is a founder of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund and N.C. Ag Consortium. (Location: Pittsboro, North Carolina)
Lou Anne Kling
Ms. Kling
returned to FLAG’s board in 2004, having served as a founding board member and as chair of the board in the 1980s and early ‘90s. She was born and raised on a family farm in Chippewa County, MN, and farmed with her husband for 25 years near Granite Falls, Minnesota. Among her many accomplishments: Lou Anne organized and served as director of Neighbors United Resource Center, a Granite Falls organization that helps farmers in financial difficulty; together with Anne Kanten, she developed the Minnesota Farm Advocates program, which continues to serve as a model for many advocate programs across the country; she conducted trainings across the country on Farmer Home Administration (FmHA) rules and regulations; she received the Virginia McKnight Binger Award for Human Service; and she served as Acting and then permanent Deputy Administrator of the Farm Loan Program in Washington, D.C., during the mid-1990s. Today, Lou Ann is back in Minnesota, serving as chair of both the Neighbors United Resource Center and the Yellow Medicine County Historical Society and Museum, and working as a volunteer advocate with farmers and senior citizens. (Location: Granite Falls, Minnesota)
Wendy Lange
Ms. Lange was elected to FLAG’s board in March 2007. Wendy and her husband, both graduates of the Land Stewardship Project's Farm Beginnings program, have an 80-acre certified organic farm on which they grow corn, soybeans, and wheat. They are also producing Omega-3 eggs, and South African Boer goats (not yet certified). (Location: Milan, Minnesota)
Betty Puckett
Ms. Puckett
has been a member of FLAG’s board since 1989. Betty and her husband farm near Alexandria, Louisiana. She has worked as the sole farm advocate for the State of Louisiana for over seven years. Betty travels throughout the state, consulting with farmers, helping them with their financial planning, teaching them their basic legal rights, and representing them at administrative appeal hearings. (Location: Lecompte, Louisiana)
Susan A. Schneider
Ms. Schneider joined FLAG’s board in 2008. She is Director of the LL.M. Program in Agricultural Law, University of Arkansas School of Law. As well as teaching law classes, Susan’s private practice experience includes agricultural law work with firms in Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Washington, D.C. She was a staff attorney at FLAG and at the National Center for Agricultural Law Research & Information, and has taught at William Mitchell College of Law in Minnesota and at the Drake University Summer Agricultural Law Institute in Iowa. Susan has published numerous articles, is a contributor to an agricultural law blog, and is a frequent speaker at agricultural law conferences. (Location: West Fork, AR)
Shirley Sherrod
Ms. Sherrod
joined FLAG’s board in 1994. She is the director of field operations for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in Georgia. For 30 years, Shirley has devoted her life to the civil rights movement by working on social justice issues. Through her work at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, she developed a program of outreach, education, and technical assistance for small and limited resource farmers throughout Georgia. Shirley was awarded a fellowship by the Kellogg National Fellowship Program. She also serves on the boards of the Southwest Georgia Association for Convalescent & Aging Persons and The Funding Exchange/Saguaro Fund. (Location: Albany, Georgia)
Sarah Vogel
Ms. Vogel
joined FLAG's board in 1997. She is a partner at the Sarah Vogel Law Firm, P.C., in Bismarck, North Dakota, concentrating in agricultural, cooperative, natural resource, Native American, and environmental law and economic development. Sarah was formerly a partner at Wheeler Wolf Law Firm in Bismarck, North Dakota. Among her significant cases have been the Wiley v. Glickman case, in which 8000 farmers received $43,000,000 in crop insurance coverage for their durum wheat and Jorgenson v. Agway, Inc. which held that farmers may use the consumer fraud laws of North Dakota in regard to sale of bad seed. She began representing family farmers in 1981 and was the original lead counsel in Coleman v. Block, a national class action case on behalf of 240,000 farmers that resulted in an injunction prohibiting the Farmers Home Administration from foreclosing on nearly 80,000 farm families. From 1989 to 1996, Sarah served as North Dakota’s Commissioner of Agriculture, where she established the North Dakota Agriculture Mediation Service and co-founded Marketplace of Ideas, the nation’s largest rural development conference. She has also served as the Assistant Attorney General of North Dakota, during which time she was selected by the American Bar Association as one of the 20 young attorneys whose work made a difference to the country. (Location: Bismarck, North Dakota)
Linda Yardley
Ms. Yardley joined FLAG’s Board in 2008. She is the Outreach Liaison with National FSA American Indian Credit Outreach Initiative, covering nineteen pueblos, two Apache Tribes in New Mexico, and the two Ute tribes in Colorado. Linda was born and raised at the Taos Pueblo in Northern New Mexico; the oldest inhabited dwelling in the United States. She is a fluent speaker of the Tiwa language and is a strong believer and practices the traditional ways of her people. Farming has been a traditional practice of the pueblo people for hundreds of years, which is one of the reasons that Linda is so committed to this program. Ranching is a way of life for Linda's family. Both of her grandfathers raised cattle and horses; her 88-year-old father is still raising cattle; though it is becoming more of a challenge for him each year. Linda’s background includes many years of working at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, assisting minority students interested in the health professions. (Location: El Prado, NM)
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