He points to the variety, a mix of educational travel, teaching points in educational sessions, book reviews, and one-on-one connections. “Allie’s coordination and Nathan Whitaker’s involvement have been excellent,” says Ryan. “Te connections we’ve forged within the group will last forever.”
Melissa Clark – DLF USA Melissa Clark is a professional turf account manager for DLF USA, the U.S. arm of the global seed company. In that role, Melissa says, “I work with distributors across the U.S. We develop custom blends of turfgrass seed for their geographic region and the categories of professional turfgrass end users they serve— golf courses, sod producers,
the landscape market, and the sports field market. My colleague, Matt Duncan, has an extensive background in the sports field side. My expertise is a little bit about everything. So we play into each other and give more to our accounts and to our company.” Melissa also works with forage seed. She says, “It’s a unique market, different from turfgrasses, that gets more interesting the more I dig into it. So it’s a continual learning process backed by our awesome in-house forage experts.”
Melissa followed an unusual path to the turfgrass industry. She says, “I have zero ag background, did not grow up on a farm, and have no agronomic degree. Yet I’ve worked in this industry for over 15 years, and I love it.”
Finance was Melissa’s passion. It was sparked by an accounting class in high school and continued through college where she majored in finance and minored in business management. Following college, she worked for a risk management company that provided field inspection, inventory auditing, and property data collection services for the equipment leasing, commercial lending, wholesale credit, and floorplan financing industries. She says, “I enjoyed working with numbers, balancing the books, and the continual learning and constant challenge of my job. But I had two little boys at home and a two-hour commute each way to Portland.”
Exploring her options, she found an opening for a marketing assistant at Pickseed (which later merged with DLF). Melissa says, “I had no marketing experience, but the job description sounded doable. I interviewed well and was hired. I expected it to be short-term, but I was offered opportunities to advance, moving to positions with the production team, customer service, operations, and as of October 2019, account manager, learning more and meeting new challenges with each step.”
Melissa’s personal life has changed over the years, too. After time as a single mom, she met her husband, Duane, the
TPI Turf News November/December 2023
brother of a friend, when he was invited to join their friend group for a seafood and winefest outing on the Oregon coast. Melissa says, “We were just friends for a couple of years, part of the group that gathered for float trips, festival visits, and casual get-togethers. We hit it off well and started dating, which led to marriage. We celebrated our 9th
wedding anniversary in July.” It’s a blended family, with
the young adults all living within 50 miles of the couple. Melissa calls Duane’s three sons and their wives “awesome,” and Duane feels the same about her two sons. Melissa says, “We have six grandchildren. Te youngest is 10, the oldest just turned 14. Our favorite thing is having all six grandkids come and stay the night.”
Always open to new challenges, Melissa quickly reacted to the email about the Future Leaders Fellowship program. “It looked like a great opportunity to get tighter with like-minded industry folks to make connections, network, and promote natural grass. I was excited about being part of a fellowship with sod producers and thrilled that my application was accepted,” she says.
“Nathan Whitaker has done an excellent job guiding us in examining our positions and leadership styles to become out-of-the-box learners to better impact our careers, companies, and the entire industry,” says Melissa. Te group’s Germany trip was a highlight for her. “With Allie Shriver’s coordination, our group quickly bonded as a team. Te tour presenters provided excellent background on their operations and the group’s questions and comments added to the experience. Te beauty of the region was amazing.”
Another highlight for Melissa was the one-on-one exchange with Kelsey Sandbothe of SelecTurf. “I loved hosting her on a tour of our facilities in Oregon. My visit to her farm was great. I toured the fields with her to observe the work underway which included harvesting, palletizing, and truck loading. I learned so much, and Kelsey and her family are wonderful.”
She adds, “I would definitely recommend the program to others. Gathering folks from around the industry who sit at different points in the process gives you a broader perspective that is extremely beneficial. Te connections you make grow into amazing friendships that I hope last a lifetime.”
Applications for the 2024 -2026 Future Leaders Fellowship are open. To apply, please email Allie Shriver at
AShriver@TurfgrassSod.org.
THANK YOU TPI FUTURE LEADERS FELLOWSHIP SPONSORS
Suz Trusty is co-editor of Turf News
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