Blueberry groups hire Alicia Adler as vice president

The U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council and North American Blueberry Council have hired Alicia Adler as vice president.

Adler, who founded AMA Grant Management Services, specializing in agricultural-related marketing and grant management, has worked to secure funding for the USHBC since 2015, quadrupling annual U.S. Department of Agriculture to $1.36 million in 2019. She has been the export program manager for the USHBC for about 4 ½ years.

Adler has been responsible for grants totaling $3.67 million from the USDA in four years, according to a news release, with another $750,000 in grants pending. That includes $1.8 million to address barriers to trade through the Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops programs and $600,000 from the administration’s tariff relief program.

“Alicia brings a track record of success, experience and a vision for leadership that will serve our industry well into the future,” Kasey Cronquist, president of the NABC and USHBC, said in the release. “We’re committed to leading the way to grow and expand market opportunities globally, and Alicia will help us do just that.”  

Adler will continue to seek grant funding for the blueberry groups’ initiatives, and focus on ways to grow exports. She will form advisory groups of industry members to inform trade policy and technical affairs, according to the release, and evaluate export development efforts.

Before working for the blueberry groups, Adler was with Bryant Christie Inc. for almost six years, first as international marketing account manager and then a senior manager.

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