2024 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Announced!

PR Pioneer Kelly Schwalbe receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Ag Communicators Network

LAGRANGE, GA – Kelly Schwalbe, public relations professional and pioneer, has been named the Agricultural Communicators Network’s (ACN) Lifetime Achievement Award recipient for 2024.

This award honors ACN members for outstanding professional and personal achievements in leadership. During his 35+ years in the agricultural public relations business, Schwalbe has served in corporate, freelance and agency public relations roles, received multiple accolades for his innovative work, and dedicated hours of volunteer time to give back to the industry.

“Kelly is an exemplary volunteer and supporter of ACN and very deserving of this honor,” said Samantha Kilgore, ACN Executive Director. “He selflessly dedicated hours to growing our organization and sharing his public relations expertise and wisdom from his career to help ACN and its members succeed.”

After graduating from Iowa State University, Kelly began his career in agricultural communications with Walnut Grove Feeds as manager of company publication. He then joined VR and would spend 11 of the next 18 years there, serving as a public relations account supervisor leading public relations support efforts for Bayer Crop Science.

In 2003, he founded BCS Communications with partners (and former VR colleagues) Leigh Ann Cleaver and Illinois Blasdel. Their concept was to create a smaller, nimbler agency model where senior counselors would have more day-to-day contact with clients.

In 2015, BCS evolved into Sage Communications and continued serving top-tier agricultural and animal health clients such as John Deere, NovaSource, Boehringer-Ingelheim Vetmedica, the Cardiac Education Group and others.

Throughout the evolution of the BCS/Sage agency, Schwalbe led the public relations practice team. He was actively involved in the development, direction, and execution of public relations programs for all the agency’s clients. In addition to his public relations expertise, Schwalbe has served as a trusted teacher and mentor for many young agricultural public relations professionals, within his own organization and throughout the agricultural industry.

As a member and participant of many industry clubs and associations, Schwalbe nurtured and grew relationships throughout the agriculture and animal health industries. He generously contributed his time and expertise to many agribusiness-industry organizations. For example, he spearheaded the effort to create a strategic communications plan for the National Association of Farm Broadcasting in 2006-2007 – he contributed this work as a pro bono service to the organization.

Throughout his career, Schwalbe has been recognized as one of the leading agricultural public relations practitioners in the U.S. In 2017, he was invited to provide media and message training to entrepreneurs and business owners at the Danforth Plant Science Center’s 39 North – Venture Café.

Schwalbe received accolades from prestigious organizations such as the North American Precis Syndicate and National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) for numerous Best of NAMA awards, the 2017 Professional Development Award for Excellence in Public Relations, and “25 Under 25” award in 2017 for the top 25 businesses in Kansas City with under 25 employees. Over his 35 years of public relations, he has won numerous Marketing Communications awards from the ACN Communications Awards Contest.

As an ACN member, Schwalbe was influential on ethics as he developed and implemented guidelines for paid and unpaid content by companies and agencies. He also served on the membership committee during a time of tremendous growth and helped start the ACN MarComm awards while serving as an advisor on the board. Lastly, he served the ACN Professional Improvement Foundation as the Chairman for 10 years.

“I am incredibly honored and humbled to be receiving this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Schwalbe. “Being a part of ACN for the last 30 years has been a true blessing and a gift.”

The Ag Communicators Network has named a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient since 1990. The award is sponsored annually by CHS, Inc, and will be presented at the 2024 Ag Media Summit in Kansas City, Missouri. To register, visit www.agmediasummit.com.