RIGHTRISK - Key Persons

Jay Parsons' interests span the fields of production economics, operations research, and risk management and decision analysis. Current projects include the development of the Ag Survivor simulation software scenarios for the RightRisk educational program, a unique and innovative risk management education program designed to provide experiential learning opportunities for farmers and ranchers. Past projects have involved research in the area of livestock identification systems, livestock production and disease management, risk and uncertainty in livestock production, integrated systems modeling for Colorado ranches, and the development of multi-criteria decision support systems for agricultural land use decisions, for the personal computer manufacturing industry, and for the automobile manufacturing industry.

Job Titles:

• Business Management Economist With Colorado State University Extension

Jeff Tranel is an agricultural and business management economist with Colorado State University Extension and the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. He serves as co-coordinator of the award winning Agricultural and Business Management Team. Jeff's professional interests include risks faced by farm and ranch families, accounting and record keeping, income taxes, and human resource management. He participates in many state, regional, and national projects including RightRisk, Risk and Resilience in Agriculture, Rural Family Ventures, and Ag Help Wanted. Jeff has consulted with the Byelorussian Agricultural Academy in its efforts to develop farm management curriculum for residential instruction and outreach. He has been recognized with numerous individual and team awards during his career. Jeff was raised on a commercial and purebred cattle ranch in south central Wyoming and northwestern Colorado. He earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Wyoming.

Job Titles:

• Management Specialist at the University of Wyoming

John Hewlett is a Ranch/Farm Management Specialist at the University of Wyoming and member of the regional RightRisk and Risk Navigator teams. He also coordinated past efforts of the regional WIRE program. He grew up in Washington State, where he worked eight years (four as foreman) on a large stocker-cattle/crop operation. John holds a BS degree in Agricultural Business from Montana State University and a M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics from Oregon State University. He came to the University of Wyoming, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in 1987. Since then he has been involved in a number of state and regional extension programs, receiving two Agricultural & Applied Economics Association awards for professional excellence, five Western Agricultural Economics Association awards for outstanding extension programs, two Western Extension Directors awards of excellence, two UW Cooperative Extension awards for creative excellence, the Jim DeBree Excellence in Cooperative Extension award, and six other regional or national awards. John's current extension interests include risk management, integrated management, enterprise assessment, financial analysis, recordkeeping, and applications of technology in agricultural.