Leading Impact Award
The Dairy Girl Network is proud to open nominations for the DGN Leading Impact award. One passionate woman in dairy will be honored with the Leading Impact award at the next DGN Forward TogetHER on October 27-29, 2026 in Lexington, KY.
The Leading Impact honoree will exemplify passionate involvement and leadership achievements which have impacted the dairy industry. The ideal candidate has impacted dairy farming and are leaders within the agricultural industry, their communities and paved the way for youth and/or young adults. Her type of dairy work may be diverse. (For example, a dairy farmer, or working with an agribusiness or an agricultural educator, etc.) The ideal candidate will have contributed success towards dairy farming, is a leader within the agricultural industry and their community and be paving the way for future generations. The honoree’s contributions will have long-lasting impactful results.
Nominations will close August 31, 2026 midnight CST.
Is your business interested in sponsoring this award? If so, please send an email to our Partnership Lead, Amanda, at amandab@dairygirlnetwork.com.
Nominations for the 2026 Leading Impact award are open! Nomination form:
Previous Winners:
Jackie Klippenstein (2024)
Jackie Klippenstein is Senior Vice President, Chief Government and Industry Relations Officer at Dairy Farmers of America (DFA). She leads and provides guidance and support to government affairs, dairy policy development, sustainability and farm practices teams as well as supports DFA’s development and implementation of strategic initiatives.
Prior to joining DFA, Klippenstein served as Vice President for the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, where she shaped policy and legislative strategies on farm, environmental, and energy issues. She gained extensive dairy policy expertise while working for Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI).
A Long Island, N.Y., native and environmental sciences graduate, Klippenstein is a passionate advocate for dairy cooperatives and farmers, championing inclusivity as the first female board member of the National Milk Producers Federation. She also chairs Newtrient, focusing on reducing U.S. dairy’s environmental footprint, and serves on boards including the American Royal, Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) and Agriculture Business Council of Kansas City. She is a dairy ambassador with the Global Dairy platform, a pre-competitive international organization that represents dairy interests with the United Nations.
Within DFA, she uses her leadership to help guide the cooperative on their executive committee and through strategic planning. Klippenstein has also launched initiatives supporting grazing transitions and on-farm energy generation, enhancing farm sustainability and resilience. She connects customers that want to reduce the carbon footprint with opportunities for farmers.
Through her leadership and dedication, Klippenstein continues to drive innovation, sustainability, and inclusivity within the dairy industry, leaving a lasting impact on farmers, cooperatives, and the future of agriculture.
Pam Selz-Pralle (2022)
Selz-Pralle mentors and models making better leaders to lead stronger dairy organizations, be leaders in their communities and the voice of dairy farming. Her experience and leadership ranges from production agriculture to industry development to consumer advocacy. Yet, Selz-Pralle still manages to adventure into new projects while still keeping things going strong at home farming with her husband, Scott. They have been awarded Holstein USA Outstanding Younger Breeders, Wisconsin Jaycee Outstanding Young Dairymen and bred the World Record Milk Cow. She was honored as a Wisconsin Master Agriculturalist, one of four women in its 45-year history to receive this award. On the farm she instituted an uncommon calf feeding system of mob feeding, group pens, in a positive pressure ventilated barn. She has become a national spokesman for her program at major events and fields questions regularly from those touring her innovative, data supported calf feeding program.
Selz-Pralle testifies and speaks directly to legislatures coordinated discussion forums for Wisconsin Farm Bureau and the American Dairy Coalition. She has served countless organizations impacting dairy through local, state, national, and international boards. She volunteers and speaks to consumers at farm-to-table events. She is a spokesman for Common Ground and has participated in national radio tours, national cooking shows hosted right from her calf barn, as well as in-person consumer connection events ranging from a Kansas City daycare moms’ event to regularly attending Wisconsin Dietetics annual meetings.
Selz-Pralle is a trainer in teaching other dairywomen how to tell their story. She’s also developing a “Speak up for Ag” 4-H training program to teach dairy and livestock kids not growing up on farm how to be our future farm storytellers. She has shared her successful “Dairy Day on The Farm” template with other farm women. Nearly 12,000 students follow her calves, podcasts, videos and “Farmer Pam’s Moos” blog.