The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) is committed to its mission of being the voice of the U.S. animal food industry, influencing policy and connecting people. Given the evolving needs of its 650 feed and pet food industry members, along with projected growth within the organization’s many leading educational programs, networking events and requests for expert analysis, the AFIA is embarking on an organizational realignment. The restructuring will enhance the impact, operational efficiency and stakeholder engagement of the association.
“One of AFIA’s greatest strengths over its century-long history is its ability to remain nimble and responsive as the feed and pet food industries’ needs evolve,” said AFIA president and CEO Constance Cullman. “Today, we are embarking on an organizational realignment from a position of strength – firmly grounded in our Four Promises to members and focused on where we see the greatest opportunities for growth in our services, products, events and policy impact.”
The realignment will create three AFIA departments for policy, member experience and operations, and strengthen the Institute for Feed Education and Research’s (IFEEDER) ability to advance animal food industry research and education needs. The AFIA policy department will focus staff expertise on proactively addressing regulatory, legislative and global policy issues and enhancing AFIA’s advocacy functions. The member experience department will enhance member value by ensuring brand and messaging consistency across all association events, communications and educational programming – creating a cohesive experience that connects directly to AFIA’s policy work and emerging issues impacting the industry. The operations department will enhance the association’s internal processes and administrative tasks, align revenue generation with financial planning and create opportunities to support member growth, engagement and retention.
“This realignment reflects the enthusiasm, energy and strong commitment of both AFIA’s Board leadership and team to propel the association forward,” said Dan Meagher, AFIA Board chair 2025-26. “As a Board officer team, we are confident these changes will enhance the value AFIA delivers to our members and stakeholders while strengthening the association’s role as the leading voice in the animal food industry.”
With these changes comes the promotion of two AFIA staff members, Leah Wilkinson and Victoria Broehm. Wilkinson, who has been with the association since 2010, will lead the policy department, assuming the title of chief policy officer. Broehm, who has been with the association since 2017, has been promoted to vice president of member experience and will lead the member experience department. Sarah Novak, chief operating officer who has been with the association since 2007, will lead the operations department. On May 22, the AFIA Board of Directors approved Wilkinson, Broehm, Novak, Andy Timmins, association treasurer and chief financial officer, and Cullman as AFIA staff officers. Lara Moody, IFEEDER’s executive director since 2021, will remain in this position and serve on the leadership team.
In the coming months, the association will post three positions – an education manager, policy engagement manager and communications director. Given IFEEDER’s growing role as a content generator for reliable, trusted research and analysis on the animal food industry, the institute will add a second staff member – a senior manager of research. Information about staff openings can be found at afia.org/careers.
