Kansas Corn recently welcomed Connie Fischer to its team as Director of Innovation and Commercialization. Fischer will look for ways to increase corn demand through new uses, encourage the commercialization of commission-funded research, work with partners to increase exports, and administer the commission’s research program.

Fischer grew up on a diversified grain and livestock farm near Rossville. She received a bachelor’s degree in agronomy with an emphasis in business from Kansas State University. During college, she worked for the U.S. Geological Survey on an atrazine runoff study in the Delaware River Basin.

Fischer spent six years within the Agricultural Products Development Division of the Kansas Department of Commerce from 1997 to 2003. She spent the next 16 years as a partner at Advanced Market Concepts, a consulting company focused on the food and agribusiness sectors. In that role, she assisted clients with business management projects, business plan development, marketing and feasibility studies and start-up business formation. During the last two years, she served as the Director of Finance & Operations for Christ the King Church/School/Early Education Center in Topeka.

Fischer, her husband, Dan, and their two daughters are all K-State alumni. She and her husband live near her parents’ farm and raise a small cow/calf herd. In their spare time they like to camp, spend time with family and renovate old homes.