LEAD Team
Shelby & Chrystal Castelloe – Bertie County
Shelby and Chrystal operate and manage about 200 acres of row crops. They also custom harvest about 1000 acres.
Shelby works for the Town of Windsor as the Electric Department Supervisor and contract tot he Town of Asheville as a Waste Water Collections Operator. Chrystal works for Bertie County Schools as the Cafeteria Manager.
They are members of Elm Grove Baptist Church where Shelby serves a Chairman of Deacons and Sunday School teacher. Chrystal is the Nursery Coordinator and member of the Baptist Woman's group.
They have 2 children, Abbi and Zack. They enjoy watching both children playing ball.
Shelby has served on the Askewville Fire Department since 1999 and enjoys hunting and fishing with Zack.
Stewart "Buddy" & Allison Clement – Sampson County
Buddy and Allison farm 600 acres of a corn and grain operation, producing feed for a large neighboring dairy. They grow beef cattle and coastal bermuda hay. They also own and operate an off site pig nursery for Prestige Farms.
Allison is the Ag in the Classroom Ambassador for Sampson County. She has been an elementary teacher for 23 years. She is currently a third grade teacher at Midway Elementary School.
Buddy is the President of the Midway High School FFA Support Group, which is a very active group in our school district.
Buddy and Allison love spending time with their three children, Hillary, Caroline and Joshua. They are members of Mt. Elam Baptist Church.
Scott & Janie Thomas – Wilson County
Scott and Janie own Smith Evergreen Nursery. They do landscaping design and installation as well as water features, brick patios and walks. They grow 90% of their own nursery stock.
Scott is a registered landscape contractor, licensed irrigation contractor, certified aquascape contractor, member of NCNLA, ICPI paver certified and certified plant professional. He is also a Wilson County Farm Bureau board member.
Janie is a member of NCNLA and is a certified plant professional.
Grace Summers – Guilford County
Grace owns a small family farm in Guilford County. She raises free-range chickens for meat and eggs. She uses an integrated system to grow vegetables with the chickens.
Grace sells her products at the farmers curb market, she is the sole employee of this farm and takes care of all the growing and animal care.
Grace is a full-time employee with North Carolina A&T Cooperative Extension program. She coordinates the plasticulture program. She also works with greenhouse, high tunnels, community gardens and other horticulture related projects. She works statewide and as a result is involved in a lot of different and interesting farming enterprises.
Grace also owns a landscaping company, All Plants Considered. She offers landscaping designing, landscaping upgrades and makeovers. She also offers mowing, maintainence and consulting.
Chris & Lori Stancill – Pitt County
Chris owns and operates a farm operation as well as a trucking company. His farm consists of a row crop operation totaling 4500 acres of corn, cotton, soybeans, wheat and peanuts.
He recently signed a contract with Sanderson Farms to raise chickens. The broiler farm will consist of 6 houses which will produce 192,000 chickens per flock.
The trucking company includes four tractor trailers. They haul grain and peanuts for the farm as well as commercially.
Chris is a graduate of the NC State University - Phillip Morris Leadership Development program; Vice President of Pitt County Farm Bureau, and a member of Timothy Christian Church.
Chris has just finished his first flock with Sanderson Farms and looks forward to producing broilers for many years.
His wife Lori has an accounting degree and handles the bookkeeping for all the operations in addition to working part-time at the local Liberty Tax office.
He and Lori have two adult sons, Ben and John Stancill- both young men play a vital role in the farming operation although they are both in college in Greenville.
Tracy & Sheila Jenkins – Iredell County
Westward Farms is owned and operated by Tracy and Sheila. The farm consists of a breeder house and field crop operation. They grow corn, wheat and soybeans. They have one full-time employee that helps with the 300 acres and egg production is through Mountaire.
They also raise dairy heifers for competition by their children, Harrison and Lilia through the local 4-H.
Tracy is very active through the local Farm Bureau and Ruritain organization. Sheila serves as a middle school principal in Alexander County.
Harrison is active officer in the FFA. Lilia is very athletic and has participated in several 5K events.
Steven & Lisa Hooks – Wayne County
Steve and his wife Lisa own/operate a farm in Northern Wayne County. They produce tobacco, cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat. They also have a cow/calf operation and contract hog nursery.
Steve is a board member and second vice-president for Wayne County Farm Bureau. He also serves as a committee member for the Wayne County Farm Service Agency. He is a Trustee at Fremont United Methodist Church.
Lisa is an assistant Scoutmaster with BSA Troop 12. She is also a Sunday School teacher at Fremont United Methodist Church as well as a frequent volunteer at Fremont STARS Elementary School.
They have three children, Alex, Max and Kelly. They enjoy attending their children’s sports and dance events. They are active members of Fremont United Methodist Church.
Scott & Sharon Mitchell – Sampson County
Scott and Sharon are the owners/operators of Scott Mitchell Farms which consist of 2 turkey units, a pig nursery, cattle and crop production.
Scott serves as Vice President of the Sampson County Farm Bureau Board and has completed the Master Farm Management Program.
Sharon is currently employed with Clinton City Schools as the LEA Testing Coordinator for the system. She has 20 years of experience in education ranging from high school teacher, school counselor and assistant principal.
The Mitchells are members of Elizabeth Baptist Church. They have been married for 15 years and have three daughters (Jenna-11yrs., Abby-9yrs., and Emma-5yrs.). Scott and Sharon love spending time with their girls.
Ken Powell - LEAD Program Coordinator
Mac Hodges – LEAD Team Leader
Audrey Brown – Team Member
DeShon Cromartie – Team Member