Dear all,

This is a note of gratitude to Jonathon Landeck, who is retiring from the North American Millets Alliance as of today, the end of 2024. His work and ideas over the last three plus years has been essential in developing NAMA, and he will be missed.

Jonathon and I are old friends, having both done graduate work at Michigan State University (although overlapping only briefly) and having been colleagues in Peace Corps staff. In late 2021 - the year when the UN General Assembly set 2023 as the International Year of Millets - I contacted Jonathon to ask if he'd be interested in doing something to mark that Year and promote millets in the US. That was the earliest beginning of what later became NAMA.

We met Joni Kindwall-Moore (virtually) in early 2022, and shortly after that, together founded NAMA.

Many of you will recall his role in emceeing many of the Millets Webinars we did in collaboration with the University of Missouri in 2023. However much of his role with NAMA was behind the scenes, in regular meetings, discussions, and external contacts.

While we wish Jonathon and his family well, in his next chapter, we would like to assure you that NAMA is still very active, We welcomed a new member of our leadership group, Gary Wietgrefe not long ago, and although we are now back to three members, we are continuing our work and also developing new plans.

Anyway, thank you again, Jonathon! Happy New Year to you and yours and to all our friends, colleagues, and supporters!

Don

Don Osborn, PhD