Eric Bilderback was raised on a small farm in El Reno. He received an Associates Degree from Eastern Oklahoma State College, a Bachelors in Agricultural Education from Oklahoma State University, and a Masters in Educational Leadership from Southern Nazarene University. After college, he was the Agricultural Instructor in Chattanooga leading his students in the classroom, show-ring and in FFA competitions. In 2002, Bilderback was named OkACTE’s Outstanding Young Agriculture Teacher of the Year. In 2004, Bilderback became the Agriculture/Equine Department Head and Livestock Judging Coach at Redlands Community College where he managed the program that encompassed just over 600 acres with 130 students and 20 employees. During his time there, the enrollment grew by 125% and the budget increased 150% to over $1.5 million. In 2006, Bilderback joined the staff at the Oklahoma Department of Career Tech where he served as an Ag Ed Program Specialist. His responsibilities included supervising 79 schools with 95 teachers in the Southeast District. He served as a liaison between school administrators and instructors, managed the entry-year teacher program, which included 42 new instructors, and also assisted at statewide agricultural youth events. Bilderback currently is the Agricultural Instructor at Chickasha High School and a farmer/rancher in El Reno. In addition to raising cattle, he has a custom hay business. He is a member of the Masonic Lodge, Sirloin Club, Cattleman’s, and Heaston Community Church. He and his wife, Shelly, have been married for 13 years and they have one daughter, Lauren.

Justin Cowan and his wife, Linda, have owned and operated Cowan Insurance Agency in Locust Grove for the past 22 years and have been AFR Members for 33 years. The Cowan’s have been married for 29 years and have three daughters, two of which are presently attending college, and one is a sophomore at Locust Grove High School. They also operate a small cow/calf operation on 160 acres north of Locust Grove. Cowan received his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Northeastern State University in 1985 and has been a practicing Certified Public Accountant for 25 years. He has served as President of the Mayes County Farmers Union for the past 11 years. Cowan has been active in the AFR Speech Contest, the AFR Livestock Achievement Contest, the Youth Expo and served on the AFR Agent Bonus Committee. They are active with the local FFA Chapter and 4-H Club. Cowan currently serves as a financial advisor for Flint Ridge Homeowners Association Board of Directors. His responsibility is to prepare and administer an annual four million dollar operations budget. Cowan has served as the financial advisor to the Town of Locust Grove’s City Council since 1995. He conducts annual governmental audits for numerous rural water districts and reports the findings to the Oklahoma State Auditing Department.

Melody Cummings is a fourth generation organization member and second generation company agent. Her father, a former company adjuster and agent, owned the Crow Insurance Agency in Elk City for 25 years prior to Cummings assuming the ownership/management of the agency in 1986. She has served 14 years as president of the OFU/AFR Agents Association Executive Council, editing and publishing a quarterly newspaper for the agency force. Within the farm organization component of AFR, Cummings has been involved in the Women’s Conference Committee, Legislative Policy Committee, national Legislative Policy Committee, Escort Committee and State Scholarship Committee. She has served as a camp counselor, speech contest judge, youth leader and lobbied on both state and national levels on behalf of the company and organization. Active in her community she has served as president of the local chamber of commerce and chairman of the agriculture committee and chairman of the ambassadors club; and served on the education foundation.

Bobby W. Holley graduated in 1957 from Broken Bow High School. He graduated from Eastern Oklahoma A&M College, earning an associates degree in agriculture and then attended and graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1961 with a degree in agriculture and a minor in science. Holley joined the U.S. Army 45th Division, before his career began in the Wicks, Arkansas school system as a vocational agriculture teacher. Holley began his federal service career with the USDA, Farmers Home Administration lending agency, as Assistant County Supervisor, Pushmataha County. He was promoted to County Supervisor, Choctaw County, and held that position for 13 years. Holley was promoted to District Director in 1978, where he was responsible for the supervision of 10 county supervisors, a position he held until retirement. Holley retired in 1992 after 28 ˝ years’ service. During the span of his career, he was privileged to assist many financially, but with a personal touch, helping young families whose lives were changed by buying a home or getting a start in farming and ranching. His entire life has been in the interest of rural development and agriculture. Bob and Norma Holley reside on their ranch in the Nelson community. He has been a member of Oklahoma Farmers Union/American Farmers & Ranchers for 47 years. They each represent Choctaw County as delegates. Civic-minded, Bob serves on the Boards of Kiamichi Conservation District; First Bank, Antlers, 35 years; Choctaw Electric Cooperative trustee, eleven years; and formerly Soper school board, five years. He is also a licensed real estate agent.

Joe Ed Kinder grew up on his parents’ farm near Chattanooga in Tillman County. He graduated from Chattanooga High School in 1960. He has been a member of Oklahoma Farmers Union since the late 1950’s. Kinder and wife JoAnn were married in 1961 and have two children, six grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. Since then, they have lived in the Chattanooga and Frederick area where they farm and ranch currently. The Kinder farming operation consists of 2,760 owned acres where they raise wheat and have a cow-calf operation. Kinder served on the Tillman County Rural Water District #1 for 12 years, 9 years of which he was President; 18 years on the Chattanooga Town Board, 12 years were served as Mayor; Chairman of the Chattanooga Public Works Authority; and Chairman of the Chattanooga Airport Board while serving on the town board. He also served on the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association Board for several years and as Chairman of the Red River Terrace Water Authority. Kinder has served on the Oklahoma Farmers Union Policy Committee and By-laws Committee, the National Farmers Union (NFU) Policy Committee and the NFU 1995 Farm Bill Working Group. Kinder participated in legislative action “fly-ins” to Washington, D.C. and served as a NFU national delegate. He is currently serving as county President of Tillman County AFR. The Kinders’ are members of the First Baptist Church in Chattanooga.

Dr. Jerry Nick is married to the “love of his life” Jearlyn, who is a Family Nurse Practitioner in Okmulgee. They have three sons: Robert, 28; Jeff, 25; and Zachary, 24 and one grandchild, born November, 2010. Nick was born in Borger, Texas in 1958. The family moved to Okmulgee shortly thereafter in 1963 where he graduated in 1976. He attended Claremore Junior College on a golf scholarship from 1976 to 1978 and attended the University of Oklahoma from 1978 to 1985 and received a Doctorate of Dental Surgery degree. Nick has practiced Dentistry in Okmulgee for the last 25 years. In addition to practicing Dentistry, he also owns and operates a real estate rental business and a 117-acre farm outside of Okmulgee. Nick has completed the PhD program for Investools Investor education and been a member of many local civic boards in the community including serving as an officer in the Okmulgee Chamber of Commerce. He has been an AFR/OFU member for over 25 years. Nick is part of an insurance family which includes father, Bob Nick, who served on the AFR/OFU Board for 17 years; brother, his AFR insurance agent brother, Joe; and his son, Jeff who is an adjuster for Oklahoma Farm Bureau.

Rick Baranek joined AFR as the Human Resource Director in August 2011. Mr. Baranek has brought to AFR 35 years of experience in human resources, benefit management, organization development, strategic planning and employee communication. Before joining AFR, he was Human Resource Director of Midwest City Regional Hospital. Mr. Baranek earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Central Oklahoma.

Chris Blevins is the Chief Executive Officer of American Farmers & Ranchers. He joined AFR as the Chief Financial Officer in September 2009 and was appointed CEO by the Board of Directors in July 2010. Chris has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, with the last 18 years being focused primarily in the insurance industry. Before joining American Farmers & Ranchers, Chris has held a wide range of key financial leadership roles at companies both large and small, …public and private,…located in four different states across our country. Chris brings with him a wealth of dynamic management experiences from his tenure at these companies. Chris was originally from Oklahoma, and is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, with both an Accounting Degree and an MBA, and also holds the CPA certification.

Tara Brooks graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). She spent six years in public accounting at KPMG, where she was a manager, prior to coming to AFRMIC as the Financial Planning & Analysis Manager in September of 2009. Tara was promoted to the Chief Financial Officer in July of 2010. She is married to Brian Brooks, a licensed private pilot who is responsible for developing flight paths at Lockheed Martin. Tara has one child, Gage Harman Brooks, born 3/9/11.

John Cole joined the AFR team as the Director of Information Technology in March 2010. He came to AFR from IMTEC, a 3M Company after a Merger and Acquisition and spending 5 years with the Farmers Insurance Group Claims HelpPoint in Oklahoma City, OK. John has a Bachelor’s of Business Administration in Management Information Systems from the University of Central Oklahoma and a Masters of Business Administration from Oklahoma City University. John has worked in the Information Technology, Telecommunications, Data Center and Contact Center Operations fields for the past 15 years, serving various roles in leadership, management and as a FEAPAC Board Member at Farmers Insurance.

Bobby Green has served as Life Administrator for American Farmers & Ranchers Life Insurance Company since 1999 and recently was elected State Secretary/Treasurer for American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company and other entities by the membership. Bobby has had 28 years experience in the insurance industry with the first 16 years as a multi-line agent and the last 12 years in management.

Curtis Liles joined AFR in 1984 as an Independent Insurance Agent. In 1993, Curtis was elected as a member of the Board of Directors and served until 2000. In May 2000 he became the Marketing Manager and quickly moved into the Underwriting Manager position in 2001. Mr. Liles managed the Underwriting Department until 2010. Currently Mr. Liles is the Marketing/Agent Relations Director. Mr. Liles has received his Certified Insurance Counselor Certification (CIC) from the National Alliance for Insurance & Research in 2002, he received the Professional Farm Mutual Manager Certification (PFMM) from National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) in 2005, and has received the Certified Risk Manager Certification (CRM) from the National Alliance for Insurance & Research in 2008. Mr. Liles currently holds both Property & Casualty and Life & Health insurance licenses in the States of Oklahoma and Idaho. Mr. Liles earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Oklahoma.

Lori Mason, Director of Treasury Management grew up in Newcastle, Oklahoma and attended Oklahoma Christian University where she received her Masters in Accounting in 2006. While in school, Lori did an accounting internship at Devon Energy for 1 year before starting an internship at Grant Thornton, LLP in the fall of 2005, which led to her being hired as a full time auditor in January 2006. Lori worked at Grant Thornton for a total of 4 ˝ years before joining AFR in January 2010.

As director of our Product Management and Underwriting Operations Department, Jim brings over 30 years of property – casualty insurance management experience involving all personal lines of business. He possesses an extensive background in underwriting, product management, sales, marketing and operations, through both field and home office assignments for national and regional carriers encompassing over 40 states. Jim has directed the successful implementation of numerous product initiatives and programs to achieve profitable growth. He also has extensive background in the use of predictive analytics in underwriting and product management.

Chad Yearwood, Director of Claims, has worked with American Farmers & Ranchers for over fourteen years. Chad grew up in western Oklahoma and initially joined the company as a Claims clerk after earning a business degree from SWOSU. During his tenure at AFR, he has held various positions throughout the Claims Department and earned his MBA from Oklahoma City University. His professional designations include Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter, Associate in Claims, Associate in Reinsurance, Associate in Insurance Services, & Associate in Premium Auditing. Chad currently sits as an Officer on the Board of the Oklahoma City Claims Association, and is a member of the CPCU Society and the Oklahoma Claims Association. Chad has also served in various advisory capacities for the insurance industry and regulatory agencies.

Terry Detrick is a farmer and rancher from Ames in Northwest Oklahoma where he is in a father-son partnership with a cow/calf and stocker calf operation, small grains, feed grains and hay crops production. Terry is a third-generation family farmer and he and his wife, Rita, have the Detrick AFR Insurance Agency serving the Ames, Drummond, and Lahoma communities. Terry has served as president of the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association and the National Association of Wheat Growers. He represents AFR members as the organization’s federal appointment to the Cattlemen’s Beef Board overseeing the expenditures of beef check-off dollars for the intended purposes of research, promotion, and education for the industry. Detrick also serves as vice-president of Plains Oilseed Products Cooperative; president of the Oklahoma Wheat Research Foundation; board member of the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals; member of the OSU Dean of Agriculture Advisory Council; and member of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Food and Agriculture Roundtable.

John Porter was raised on a dairy and beef farm east of Stillwater where he was involved in sports and a member of the Quay FFA, judging beef and dairy cattle at state fairs. John attended Central State University in Edmond, where he specialized in business administration. In 1973, he was hired by Oklahoma Farmers Union to work insurance claims and later became a claims supervisor. During a 36-plus-years career with the company, he worked directly with several of the company presidents in various capacities. In 2010, John was elected vice president of AFR and OFU where he continues to serve in that capacity. He and his daughter Shandra now serve the Edmond community as insurance agents, following in the footsteps of his grandparents and parents who also served as company agents. Actively involved in his community, John served many years as a referee for the Oklahoma High School Sports Association.

Bobby Green has served as Life Administrator for American Farmers & Ranchers Life Insurance Company since 1999 and recently was elected State Secretary/Treasurer for American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company and other entities by the membership. Bobby has had 28 years experience in the insurance industry with the first 16 years as a multi-line agent and the last 12 years in management.