Kansas Wesleyan’s Community Resilience Hub (CRH) program has a new academic leader, as Jacob Miller-Klugesherz recently accepted the role of the Joe Hale Chair in Regenerative Agriculture.
In this tenure-track position, his main responsibility will be directing the Heartland Rodale Institute Farmer Training (RIFT) program at the university. The engaging, hands-on certificate program instructs students in all aspects of regenerative organic farming — including livestock, crops and business — in the growing season spanning March to October. The certificate program includes classroom learning and fieldwork on an operational farm of 12 acres.
Miller-Klugesherz has both practical and academic experience for the position. A sixth-generation Kansan, his first job, at age 15, was as a farmhand. He spent his childhood on his parents’ 15 acres growing, tending, picking, processing, preserving, consuming and dispersing an array of fruits, vegetables, grains and livestock.
He is a May candidate for a doctorate in Sociology at Kansas State University, with concentrations in community, agriculture, food, environment, and politics and development. He also holds a Master of Arts degree in Communications Studies (ecospheric rhetoric emphasis) from K-State.
Since June 1, he has been KWU CRH’s Education Transformation project lead. He is planning for the June 2026 Education Transformation conference, to be held on campus, an event that is expected to have regional significance.
“It’s a pleasure to welcome Jacob to this position,” said Dr. Matt Thompson, KWU president. “His Kansas roots, his passion for bettering farming, the environment and our communities, and his academic experience make him the ideal candidate to direct the RIFT program. We look forward to him making the CRH even better.”
“KWU is working to regenerate the culture of agriculture, and that starts with education,” said Miller-Klugesherz. “We aim to teach students sustainable and resilient ways to farm differently, eschewing the large-scale, commodity conventions that predominate Kansas agriculture. Farming with no chemical herbicides and minimum tillage can and should be done.”
“In this position, I will continue to live out my family’s rich Kansas and KWU legacies of education and alternative agriculture, advance the visions of Joe and Joyce Vanier Hale, and cultivate a diversity of life that supports the interdependent transformation of higher education and conventional agriculture. I’m eager to begin.”
Miller-Klugesherz will begin his position on Jan. 1.
The Joe Hale Chair in Regenerative Agriculture was established to promote innovative and sustainable agricultural practices. The position is funded by a gift from the estate of Joyce Vanier Hale and is named in honor of her late husband, Joe.
For additional information regarding the CRH, please visit www.kwu.edu/CRH.
