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Shae Dodson, Communications Coordinator

Shae was hired in June of 2004.

“I didn’t grow up on a ranch, but one grandpa was a farmer and the other was a cowboy, and I’ve always been fond of the Western lifestyle and the cattle industry in particular, so I’m thrilled and honored to be working for an organization like R-CALF,” said Dodson. “As an ag broadcaster working in Amarillo, Texas, R-CALF didn’t always have a lot of representation when it came to news coverage. But after my first R-CALF convention in 2003, I knew the organization was legitimate and grounded, had its facts together, and had laid the groundwork to move the interests of independent cattle producers forward.”

A native Texan, Dodson moved to Billings, Mont., after a brief stint as agribusiness director at a 25,000-watt radio station in northeastern Colorado. The Colorado Association of Conservation Districts named Dodson as Colorado Ag Journalist of the Year in November 2003. Dodson also served as moderator at the February debate between R-CALF USA and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) in La Junta, Colo., and served on the public relations committee of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. She also was active in the National Association of Farm Broadcasters.

Dodson is a graduate of the Texas Agricultural Lifetime Leadership (TALL) program, a competitive two-year program geared to groom industry leaders for positions of influence after completion. The program afforded Dodson opportunities to report on agricultural issues not only across Texas, but also in Washington, D.C., New York, London, South Africa and Monterrey, Mexico.

Dodson has hosted the national television show “RFD-TV Live!” on several occasions, and was featured in a January segment of the U.S. Farm Report, a weekly television show broadcast across the country.

Prior to Colorado, Dodson was associate agribusiness director for KGNC AM 710 in Amarillo, Texas, broadcasting hourly agriculture news and bottom-of-the-hour market updates, and hosting an afternoon radio show. She earned a B.S. in agriculture journalism from West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) in Canyon, Texas, where she also was inducted into Alpha Zeta, the agriculture honor fraternity; earned the “Cotton John” agriculture broadcasting scholarship and one from the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo; and later, was a member of the WTAMU Ag Development Association.

She also served on the Ag Council for the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce; served on the Potter County Beef Education Task Force; was a charter member of Texas AgriFood Masters; and was a graduate of Leadership Amarillo.

Dodson also was a news anchor, investigative reporter and talk show host at KVII-TV (ABC) in Amarillo; worked as a medical writer for the Amarillo Globe-News; and was marketing director for HealthSouth Sports & Rehabilitation there before returning to her first love, agriculture reporting.

Dodson has won awards for investigative and interpretive reporting, magazine design, magazine editing, action photography and humor writing. She puts on media-training workshops for various boards of directors, civic groups and others. She also has done voice-over work for several instructional videos, and has done various television commercials.

Please contact our Communications Coordinator Shae Dodson at 406-252-2516 or sdodson@r-calfusa.com.

                            This page was last updated on Monday, October 27, 2008.