The current CASN leadership team is presented below.
For questions or additional information please contact Cassey Peltier (Program Manager) or Chris Wanat (Program Coordinator).
Cheryl Beseler
Associate Professor (University of Nebraska Medical Center)
Cheryl Beseler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental, Agricultural and Occupational Health in the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. She holds a doctorate in environmental health epidemiology and has been working in agriculture for 20 years, primarily focusing on the neurological effects of pesticide exposures and occupational injuries. Her past work has included risk factors for youth on family farms.
Email: chbeseler@unmc.edu
Marsha Cheyney
Evaluator and Outreach Specialist (Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health)
Marsha Cheyney is an evaluator and outreach specialist for the Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health (GPCAH) at the University of Iowa. She develops outreach materials to present at national and regional farm shows and professional conferences and implements the GPCAH evaluation activities. Marsha joined CASN while attending her first ISASH conference nearly 10 years ago and is especially passionate about working with high school and college-aged farmers and farm workers.
In addition to coordinating outreach and evaluation efforts, she is professionally interested in gamification as a learning tool, integrating Universal Design for Learning principles into outreach materials and resources, and making evaluation a useful part of program planning and implementation. Marsha holds a Master’s in Public Health in Community and Behavioral Health from the University of Iowa.
Email: marsha-cheyney@uiowa.edu
Jana Davidson
Program Manager (Progressive Agriculture Foundation)
As Program Manager, Davidson leads the Foundation’s program team overseeing day-to-day and long-range program operations, while continuing to strengthen the overall reach, impact, and outcomes of the Progressive Agriculture Safety Day (PAF Safety Day), which is recognized as the largest rural safety and health education program for children in North America. She guides the program staff through ongoing efforts to reach more children, families, and communities throughout North America to best align with the ongoing needs in rural and farming landscapes.
Davidson received her Bachelor of Science degree from the Pennsylvania State University in Agribusiness Management and went on to earn a Master of Education specializing in Teaching & Curriculum. Davidson believes in the mission of the PAF Safety Day program, and other similar causes, aimed at helping provide practical solutions through hands-on education and resources to overcome the problem of preventable injuries and fatalities among youth living, working, and visiting farms. Jana resides in Clearfield, Pennsylvania.
Email: jdavidson@progressiveag.org
Melanie Forti
Health & Safety Programs Director (Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs)
Melanie Forti is a committed and avid advocate for underserved communities. She has dedicated most of her professional career to helping improve the quality of life of the farmworker community through health and safety education, educational material development, and program development and implementation. Melanie is focus is to promote and educate migrant and seasonal farmworkers on equal human rights, and a health and safety work/life environment through core value and life-saving education.
Melanie joined AFOP on September 28, 2009. As AFOP’s Health & Safety Programs Director and Children In the Fields Campaign (CIFC), she supervises a team of 3 dedicated staff and ensures grants compliance. She plays an active leadership role as an advisory board member for many organizations supporting farmworker advocacy and education. She brings over 16 years of experience in program development and implementation, training, project management, supervision, and budget management. She has over 16 years of experience and knowledge of farmworker health and safety issues and has been an active farmworker advocat7200 for over 13 years. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Sacred Heart University in Puerto Rico.
Email: forti@afop.org
Marcos Grigioni
Surgeon, Agricultural Health and Safety Trainer, Researcher
Marcos is an Argentinian fifth generation farmer, ag health and safety educator, independent researcher, communicator and advisor. As a doctor, Marcos specializes in general surgery. Marcos has additional degrees and expertise in the fields of occupational health and occupational risk prevention, education for sustainable and rural development, innovation management in the agri-food sector, quality and social responisbility in agriculture, agricultural education and agricultural journalism.
For 15 years, Marcos has been dedicated to teaching, training, research and scientific dissemination of topics related to the well-being of farmers, rural workers and their families. He is a collaborator and advisor on agricultural health and safety issues for companies, cooperatives, institutions and organizations in the sector. Marcos is the creator and coordinator of multiple Health and Safety Programs for the Agrarian Family in Argentina.
Alma Jordan
Author and Founder of AgriKids
A passionate advocate for farming and farm safety, Alma Jordan is an author and founder of AgriKids, a multi award winning farm safety educational platform whose ethos is to engage, educate and empower children to be farm safety ambassadors
Impacted by the record number of deaths on Irish farmyards in 2014, Alma set about creating an engaging concept that would assist farm safety discussion in homes and classrooms. The concept has been recommended on an Irish government report and recently AgriKids was presented as an example of best practice in farm safety education at a European Social Dialogue panel for agriculture in Brussels. Professionally, Alma has degrees in both business and media studies and over 20 years’ experience in marketing and communications. Her series of children’s farm stories were featured on World Book Day in 2023.
Alma grew up on a beef and tillage farm and now lives on her family’s horse, beef and tillage farm in Co Meath on the east coast of Ireland.
Email: alma@agrikids.ie
Whitney Pennington
Outreach Core Lead (High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety)
Whitney Pennington, MPH is the Outreach Core Lead for the High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety located at Colorado State University. In her role, she promotes best practices for farm safety, particularly those identified through the Center’s research. Whitney has 10 years of experience in health communications, mostly focusing on risk communications and safety, and she enjoys the challenges of translating research findings into real-world programs that help people stay safe at work and at home. Whitney earned her Master in Public Health degree from Emory University in Atlanta, GA.