The IARC, 501(c)3 of the Illinois Agri-Women welcomes the newest Board member Karen Loeb Westbrook at the March 20th Annual Meeting. Please learn more about Karen.
Karen earned her undergraduate degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. She has a master’s degree from Northwestern University in Community Health Planning. After a brief teaching career, Karen worked in the health consulting field. She spent over 22 years working in high level administrative positions for Illinois Constitution officers in Springfield. She completed her work within the governmental sector as an employee for a defense contractor working in the area of agriculture security. She and husband operate Karen’s family company providing materials for water filtration and foundry operations.
Karen was introduced to farming through an uncle and family friends. Growing up in the city suburbs she always had an interest in the outdoors. Her parents decided to make her dad’s dream a reality, purchasing farms as an investment. Karen is not one to watch, so she signed up for Annie’s Project to learn more about farming operations. After failing once, Karen passed and has been managing the farm operations for her family since then. Through Annie’s Project, Karen was introduced to IAW holding a variety of Board positions. One of Karen’s mothers love was to explain to “city folk” that farmers don’t wear bib overalls, have master’s degrees and women do a lot more that provide sandwiches. Karen has established an IAW scholarship award in her memory.