Brandon Connell is from Streator, IL, where he grew up on a small family farm. He just recently graduated from Fieldcrest High School in Minonk, IL, where heh as highly involved in the FFA. He is now attending Illinois Valley Community College (IVCC) and obtaining an associate’s degree in Agriculture business and Agronomy, along with two certificates. He is active in IVCC’s Ag Club and holds an Ag Ambassador Position. Growing up alongside the family farm gave him many learning opportunities that expanded when he started his own livestock herd. Brandon hopes to take his previous knowledge and apply it to his internship, as well as take back lessons learned and apply them to school/ career. 

Ashley Babbitt is from Eureka, IL, where she grew up around seed sales and agriculture. She went to high school at Eureka High, where she was very involved in FFA and band. After high school, Ashley obtained an associate’s degree in agriculture from Illinois Central College and a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Communication and Leadership from Illinois State University. When she wasn’t at school, you could find Ashley either working or at her grandparents’ horse farm.

Early on, Ashley knew she wanted to have a career in Agriculture from riding with her dad while he sold seed. Agriculture has always been her passion, and she has always pictured herself working in the field. After graduating from ISU, Ashley started out in Ag Retail and worked her way up to being a manager of a major hub location. Ashley has worked in the operations side of Ag retail for 13 years, starting by scouting fields and progressing to mixing chemicals and fertilizer, loading anhydrous, and warehouse management. While managing the hub location, Ashley learned how to effectively schedule multiple machines and deliveries to other facilities or to growers, and how to maintain/order inventory. Ashley has always been a hands-on type of person and is willing to learn what it takes to be successful.

Ashley is very excited and eager to learn more within the seed and fungicide industry, but also to bring her knowledge and skills to help grow the efficiency and customer service for all the customers we work with. She is very excited to be working with the Integrated Team and see where this opportunity will lead.

I grew up in Albertville, Minnesota. My passion for agriculture came at a young age, sparked by a family farming operation in West Central MN. After high school, I attended Ridgewater College, where I obtained a 2-year ag-business degree. I furthered my education at South Dakota State University, where I got a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Science and a minor in Agronomy. Throughout college, I gained hands-on experience through Agronomy Retail and Agronomic Research internships. My career started with a local Co-op, where I worked with growers to help increase productivity and ROI on their operation. I then spent 4 years with Bayer as a part of their field-testing organization and as a technical agronomist. I have a strong passion for agronomy — understanding crop development, how soils work, and how to make farming more efficient and sustainable. I’m always eager to learn more and build strong relationships with growers to make an impact on their operations.

Tiffany is a recent graduate of Flanagan High School. She was highly involved in FFA, being the Section 9 President. This fall, she will begin studying Agricultural Education at Joliet Junior College. She also played softball throughout high school!

Kamber Kilgus was raised just outside of Fairbury, Illinois, on her family’s dairy and grain farm, where she developed a strong work ethic and a deep appreciation for agriculture from an early age. Much of her childhood was spent actively involved in daily farm operations. Throughout the year, Kamber could often be found in the barn milking cows, bottling milk, assisting customers in the family’s country store, or helping in the fields during planting and harvest seasons. These experiences provided her with hands-on knowledge of livestock and crop production while instilling a lifelong passion for the agricultural industry.

During her youth, Kamber was highly involved in 4-H, where she especially enjoyed showing dairy cattle alongside her family. Through these experiences, she developed leadership skills, attention to detail, and a strong sense of responsibility. Outside of agriculture, Kamber values time spent with friends and family and enjoys being outdoors. 

Kamber graduated from Prairie Central High School in 2025, where she was a highly involved member of the FFA organization at the section, state, and national levels. Throughout her high school career, she competed at the national level five times, earning three Reserve National Champion titles. In addition, she was recognized as a national finalist for her Dairy Production Placement record book, highlighting her dedication, technical knowledge, and commitment to excellence within the dairy industry.

Currently, Kamber is pursuing a degree in Agricultural Business at Joliet Junior College. While in college, she remains actively involved in the Collegiate Farm Bureau and the Student Agriculture Association, where she continues to expand her leadership abilities, industry knowledge, and professional network.

Kamber also brings valuable industry experience from her three-year internship with Integrated Seed Solutions. During this time, she gained hands-on experience in research plots, agronomics, client relationships, and sales, while building strong professional relationships within the organization. Through this internship, she further developed her understanding of seed technologies and grower needs.

As she continues her professional journey, Kamber is eager to build strong customer and grower relationships, expand her knowledge of seed and agronomics, and help showcase the full range of products and services offered by Integrated Seed Solutions. She is passionate about making a meaningful impact on growers’ operations and contributing to the long-term success of the agricultural community.

Robert is a 2002 Western Illinois University Graduate who majored in Agronomy. He started his career as an intern with one of the most influential mentors in his career at the Monsanto Research Farm in Monmouth, Il. Dan Zinck.  It is crazy to think one summer in a backpack sprayer, and three sets of goof plots could inspire a career.

Robert has spent the last twenty-plus years developing mutually profitable relationships with growers from West Central Illinois to South Central Minnesota and has focused on the Northeast region of Illinois for the last seventeen years. He has always had a passion for developing new agronomy solutions and bringing new technology to his growers.

From the start of his career at a small regional seed company as their research agronomists Robert developed a great insight on hybrid development. Looking at how genetics + environment + Management = impact yield.

Robert’s strong boots-on-the-ground approach, coupled with a passion for research, product development, and best high-yield management practices, created a significant opportunity to partner with highly innovative, leading-edge companies.

Dan grew up on a small farm in Southern Illinois. After completing agronomy studies at SIU-C in 1988 he moved to central Illinois working in research for American Cyanamid and Monsanto. Over his 30+ year career in agriculture, he has focused primarily on research and knowledge transfer in crop protection, seed, traits, and general agronomy.  Before joining Integrated Seed, he led agronomy for Novus Ag. He served as CEO of Innovative Seed Solutions, a global sorghum breeding and licensing company.  Before that, various roles within Monsanto allowed him to lead the Stone Seed Brand, US Technology Development, and Dekalb Agronomy.  He started his career in field research which provided him with the opportunity to help define RR soy, RR corn, and above and below-ground insect traits for corn & dicamba-tolerant soybeans. He resides in Indiana with his wife Carolyn and daughters Alyson and Anastasia.  Carolyn and he stay grounded in production ag by operating their small family farm in Illinois.

Jerry was born and raised on a Dewitt County Illinois farm just outside of Wapella, IL. He spent his youth on a tractor or in a cattle pasture and in 1989 his father, Dan, started a seed dealership which Jerry helped with as often as possible.  After High School, He went on to Black Hawk East and then to ISU. During and after ISU he worked at Country Companies in Bloomington and quickly realized that life behind a cubicle wall was not for him. He left Country Companies in 2004 to get back to agriculture with CaseIH as a Precision Farming Specialist, and he loved getting back in the field with the farmers. In 2008, Monsanto came calling with an opportunity to get back in the Seed Business. Jerry spent the next 15 years within the Monsanto Corporate structure as a District sales manager, rising to the top and winning master sales along the way. It became apparent the corporate structure was going to pull Jerry further and further away from the field with the farmer so when the opportunity came with Integrated seed solutions to bring his customers the best genetics without the corporate chaos Jerry hopped on board.