Dr. Ken Stalder, from a farm in Iowa, earned degrees from Iowa State Univ. (B.S. 1987, Ph.D. 1995) and Western Kentucky Univ. (M.S. 1992). Ken joined ASAS in 1991 and started his career with extension in Tennessee. Since, 2003 he has been an extension swine specialist at Iowa State Univ. Ken’s leadership, he helped the U.S. swine industry begin to focus on sow longevity. Dr. Stalder and colleagues developed spreadsheets to determine how long a sow has to remain in herd to “pay for herself” and developed posters showing ideal replacement gilt traits. These tools are widely used across the globe today. Ken has maintained an active applied research program. Grant support for Ken’s programs exceeds $7 USD during his career. Dr. Stalder has published over 500 articles (including 145 journal articles). Ken has mentored 18 graduate students (13 M.S., 5 Ph.D.) and served the committees for 45 others (34 M.S., 11 Ph.D.). Ken and his wife Cheryl have three adult children Lauren, Sam and Will.