UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Board of Trustees member Betsy E. Huber has been elected president of the National Grange, becoming the first woman to hold that office in the organization’s nearly 150-year history.
Huber was elected president Nov. 12 at the 149th annual convention of the National Grange in Lincoln, Nebraska. As president, Huber will work with National Grange staff to advance grange policies in Washington D.C., as well as oversee the day-to-day operations of the organization.
Huber is currently government relations director for the Pennsylvania State Grange, where she works to advance the policies of the grange within the Pennsylvania General Assembly. She has held numerous positions with her local grange and with the Pennsylvania State Grange, including serving eight years as president — also the first woman to hold that title.
She previously served as a member of the board of directors of the National Grange and is also the executive secretary for the Pennsylvania Young Farmers Association. She has held various positions in the agricultural community, including serving on the boards of the Pennsylvania State Council of Farm Organizations (president, 2011-12), the Governor’s Census 2010 Advisory Panel, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Fertilizer Advisory Committee, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Agricultural Advisory Board (chair, 2007), and Pennsylvania Farm Link.
Huber has served her community as township supervisor for Upper Oxford Township for 24 years. A native of Chester County, Huber attended West Chester High School and Millersville and Lincoln Universities. She graduated from Penn State’s Rural-Urban Leadership (RULE) Program in 2001 and is a member of the RULE advisory board.
Huber has served on Penn State’s Board of Trustees since being elected by delegates from agricultural societies in July 2005. She currently serves as vice chair of the Committee on Governance and Long-Range Planning and is a member of the Committee on Outreach, Development, and Community Relations.
The National Grange, founded in 1867, is a nonprofit, non-partisan, fraternal organization that advocates for rural America and agriculture. There are nearly 80,000 members in 2,000 local community granges across 41 states.