ORLO “BOB” EHART Senior Policy and Science Advisor (Retired) National Association of State Departments of Agriculture Silver Springs, MD https://marquismillennium.com/20th_Ed/82/ Drawing on more than 50 years of proven experience, Orlo “Bob” Ehart is a leader in public policy. From 2012 until retiring in 2025, he excelled as a senior policy and science advisor for the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture in Washington, DC, and Baltimore, Maryland. In his role, he helped shape and implement agricultural production and food safety policy. He originally joined the organization in 2003, operating as a public policy director, an animal and plant health coordinator and a regional coordinator. Mr. Ehart’s policy career began with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection, where he spent over a decade overseeing pesticide control and groundwater contamination mitigation. He was also a manager of issues and policies for Ciba-Geigy AG and founded Next Wave Enterprises, where he served as president. Mr. Ehart earned a BS in biology at the University of North Dakota. He paused his education the following year after being drafted into the United States military. After completing his service, he returned to North Dakota State University, achieving an MS in entomology and ecology. Throughout his studies, he traveled extensively, spending time in Peru and teaching at a veterinary school in Iran. In the late 1980s, he pursued doctoral coursework in agricultural and environmental policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mr. Ehart has served as chair of the Agriculture Science and Technology Review Board and three of its subcommittees and wrote a column, “The Contrarian Agrarian,” for more than a decade. How have you navigated disruptions in your industry to remain a top professional? I learned how to be a problem-solver. I had a friend who worked at the Environmental Protection Agency. He told me that once you finish a PhD, you never have to think about going back to school. I looked at him and said, “I can't identify with that. Maybe it works for you for your job, but we would be stuck with whatever was popular the day we graduated.” If you look objectively at everything happening, things change so quickly that, If change isn’t good, you should learn to deal with, manage and redirect it to accomplish a value rather than be a hindrance.
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