Teri Steppel is a recipient of the 2022 Industry Award for consistently serving the industry and providing outstanding leadership to National Crop Insurance Services (NCIS) and the crop insurance industry. The award was presented during the 2022 Crop Insurance Industry Annual Convention last week in Indian Wells, California.

Steppel began her career in crop insurance working at the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) in 1978. Her career spanned multiple administrations, Farm Bills, Standard Reinsurance Agreements, Common Policies, and endless changes to the Federal crop insurance program. She has watched farming practices change and technology change significantly over the last four decades.

Through all of this change, there has been a constant need for policy, procedure, and reality to find a common ground. Steppel thrives in this environment and her passion and dedication has benefited all participants, companies, and the Risk Management Agency.

Steppel’s involvement in NCIS Standing Committees and workgroups over the years has been tireless.  The objective of the first committee she participated in was to develop something the industry knows as the Actual Production History (APH) plan. She served on the original NCIS Policy Procedure & Loss (PPLA) Adjustment Committee that started in the mid-1990s and has served as a member, Chair and Co-Chair of the MPCI PPLA, Data Mining Steering Committee, and multiple working groups for most of her career. She is still an active member of the MPCI PPLA Committee and has been co-chair since 2005.

Her contributions and leadership to NCIS committees is that she actively participates, does not hesitate to lead, and has mastered the skill of knowing when to speak and when to listen. She is always ready and willing to help others learn and understand issues in order to achieve solutions that add integrity to the crop insurance program.

Steppel’s dedication to the industry is sincere. She cares about farmers and ranchers, appreciates competitors, respects our regulators and taxpayers, and is able to see the big picture and the minutia of almost every scenario in a very short amount of time.

PHOTO: Teri Steppel was presented with the 2022 Crop Insurance Industry Leadership award by Kendall Jones (left) Chair of the National Crop Insurance Services Board of Directors, and Tom Zacharias (left), President of National Crop Insurance Services.