Jessica Akins is a communication specialist for the center. Her main responsibilities are managing social media and writing for the blog. Akins grew up on her family’s grain and beef cattle operation in rural Radnor, Ohio, and is part of the fourth generation to participate in the farm’s management. She spent much of her youth showing steers and heifers throughout the U.S. at various national livestock events. During her years of showing, she served as the American Chianina Association’s national queen and vice president of the American Junior Chianina Association. She holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural sales and marketing and agricultural communication from Purdue University as well as a master’s in agricultural education and communication from the University of Florida. Akins has worked with livestock breeders to enhance their brand awareness and communication efforts as a freelance communication consultant. She and her husband, Chandler, live in and experience rural Georgia every day, where he farms full-time with his family. In addition to her work with the Rural Center, Akins is a faculty member in agricultural communication at ABAC.
What is one item that's produced in rural Georgia that you would not want to live without?
"Cotton! Growing up with corn and soybeans in the fields at harvest time in the Midwest, it was always brown tones. In Georgia, the cotton is so beautiful in the fields with the white bolls. It also produces stylish, comfortable clothes and warm blankets."
Photo by Lindsay Colson, Captured by Colson, Valdosta, Georgia