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Facilitating Team

Don Wilhite

Don Wilhite is a professor emeritus in Applied Climate Science at the School of Natural Resources. He joined the faculty at University of Nebraska - Lincoln in 1977. During his tenure at UNL, Don founded the National Drought Mitigation Center in 1995 and served as its director until 2007 when he was appointed director of SNR. He was one of four authors of the UNL climate change study published in 2014 and organized eight sector-based roundtables on climate change in the fall 2015. Don is passionate about the urgent need to develop and implement adaptation and mitigation strategies in response to current and projected changes in our climate and the implication of these changes on Nebraska, our nation and the global community.

Bruce Johnson

Bruce Johnson is Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska—Lincoln where his primary teaching and research focus areas were resource and environmental economics. As a native Nebraskan with farming roots, he has always held a deep appreciation for the rich land and water resources of this state—and the responsibility for wise conservation and stewardship of that endowment. With the challenges of climate change, he believes more than ever that sound climate action today is not only a moral obligation to humanity, but also is economically-doable and prudent for current and future generations alike. He and his wife keep close ties to the land by owning and operating a small commercial vineyard as well as overseeing a local community garden.      

Alan R. Moeller

Alan R. Moeller is Assistant Vice Chancellor Emeritus at the University of Nebraska Lincoln where he served for 36 years as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Finance and Personal in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR). During his tenure at UNL he oversaw the business and finance operations, state and federal relations and legal matters of IANR. Now retired he is pursuing his long-held interest in nature and the environment with a deep concern for the legacy we are leaving for our children and grandchildren. The planet earth is a beautiful place, it is our home, and we need to take care of it for current and future generations. Climate change is a critical environmental issue that requires effective solutions.

Thomas Hoegemeyer

   A native of Dodge County Nebraska, Tom was raised on a mixed livestock and seed farm near Hooper. He was an Ag Honors major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, received a National Science
Foundation undergraduate research grant, was elected to Sigma Xi research honorary as an undergraduate, and graduated from UNL in June, 1970. After a brief stint in the US Army Reserve, he was a graduate student in corn breeding and genetics at Iowa State University from March, 1971 to August, 1974, when he earned his Ph.D. degree.

   He started his career as a plant breeder at Hoegemeyer Hybrids, from 1974 to 1984, and served as research director and CEO from 1984 to 2004. The company grew from a small enterprise to one of the largest 25 corn seed companies in the US. They patented multiple parent seed lines and genetic systems, then sold the germplasm and breeding platform to Syngenta in 2004. Tom was a consultant and corn development scientist for Syngenta from 2005 through 2008. After retiring from Syngenta, he accepted a position as a Professor of Practice in the Agronomy and Horticulture Department at UNL, from 2009 to 2015.

   Over his career, he received the 1994 Private Breeder Award from the National Council of Commercial Plant Breeders and the Crop Science Society of America, served as the chair of the Nebraska Seed Trade Association and served as the chair of the Corn and Sorghum Division of the American Seed Trade
Association (ASTA). He served on and chaired the ASTA committee on Germplasm Intellectual Property Rights from 1998 to 2006. He served two terms on the technical steering committee of the US Genetic Enhancement of Maize ( a consortium of all major seed companies, USDA and seven land grant universities) followed by six years as chairman of the steering committee.

He currently is retired (mostly) and resides in Lincoln, Nebraska.

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Our ECL Facilitang Team

  • Paul Canny, Rered Teacher and School Principal

  • Doug Farrar, Consultant

  • Ken Haar, Environmental Consultant, Former NE State Senator

  • Thomas Hoegemeyer, Professor Emeritus, UNL

  • Barbara Hoppe, Educator and Social Entrepreneur

  • Bruce Johnson, Professor Emeritus, UNL

  • David Lux, Rered Pastor

  • Alan Moeller, Professor Emeritus, UNL

  • Robert “Skip” Morris, Rered Educator

  • James O’Hanlon, Professor Emeritus, UNL

  • Ron Roeber, Consultant

  • Roger Wehrbein, Farmer/Livestock Producer, Former NE State Senator;

  • Don Wilhite, Professor Emeritus, UNL

  • Ken Winston, A2orney and Environmental Policy Advocate

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