Dr. Keri L. Jacobs is associate professor of agricultural and applied economics and Partridge Chair in Cooperative Leadership at the University of Missouri. Since 2022, she has served as Executive Director of the Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership (GICL). In her outreach role, Jacobs supports cooperatives and their associations by creating and delivering director and talent development programs in cooperative governance and finance, and by engaging with cooperative boards and leadership in strategic planning. Through collaboration with industry and key stakeholders, she pursues research that seeks to inform and elevate producers’ opportunities through collective action within their supply chains.
Jacobs is a member of the NCBA CLUSA Cooperative Economics Council, the Nationwide Board Council, is North Central Director for the Extension Section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and serves in development and governance advisory capacities for several cooperative associations.
Jacobs was raised on her family’s hog and row crop farm in eastern Iowa. She earned her B.A. in economics from Coe College and PhD in agricultural economics from North Carolina State University.