Jul 12, 2023

Ag safety board adds Farm Medicine Center staffer

A National Farm Medicine Center staffer has been voted to an international agricultural safety board.

Melissa Ploeckelman, an outreach specialist with the National Farm Medicine Center, Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, has been elected to the International Society for Agricultural Safety and Health (ISASH) board of directors. She was selected by a vote of membership.

Incorporated in 1962, ISASH is a network of more than 200 engineers, educators, insurers, physicians, nurses, veterinarians, statisticians, communicators, social scientists, business leaders and others who play influential roles in agricultural safety and health. Ploeckelman’s term is for three years.

“This is a great show of support from agricultural safety professionals for the valuable role Melissa has played in ISASH and in promoting agricultural safety and health,” Cap Bendixsen, director of farm medicine, said in a news release.

Ploeckelman is a former agricultural educator and classroom teacher who grew up on her family’s dairy farm in Stetsonville, Wisconsin. She was selected 2009 State Fairest of the Fairs, a state-funded position in which she represented Wisconsin agriculture.

Ploeckelman joined Farm Medicine in 2017. Her work includes projects with the National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, and the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center. Both are funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. She is responsible for all social media within Farm Medicine, assists with multiple websites, serves as co-lead for media relations and represented Farm Medicine on the executive committee of Wisconsin Farm Technology Days in 2022.

Ploeckelman serves multiple roles in ISASH, co-chairing the public relations committee and participating in the conference planning committee.

Ploeckelman joins eight other agricultural safety/health leaders on the ISASH board: Brian Kuhl, board president and president and chief executive officer of the Progressive Agriculture Foundation; president-elect Gloria Brock, John Deere; Wendy Bennett, AgSafe BC; Josie Rudolphi, University of Illinois; Steve Freeman, Iowa State University; Carolyn Sheridan, Ag Health and Safety Alliance; Athena Ramos, Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health; and Briana Hagen, University of Guelph.

Founded in 1981, the National Farm Medicine Center is the largest continuously-operating center devoted to agricultural health and safety in the U.S. It is a part of the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute. The center’s mission is to improve the health and wellness of rural and agricultural communities through research, education and outreach. Farm Medicine is also home of the peer-reviewed Journal of Agromedicine. Farm Medicine