May 2019 Veteran of the Month: Ryan McKibben

Ryan McKibben (center) and wife Amanda McKibben (left) meet with Commissioner Fried to receive the Veteran of the Month award for May 2019.

Military Service

Former U.S. Army Sergeant

Agriculture Service

Veteran Florida Agriculture Intern at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS)  North Florida Research and Education Center in Quincy, Florida.

Biography 

Ryan is an Army veteran with 10 years of service who served two combat tours in Iraq. After his service in the Army, Ryan attended Tallahassee Community College, where he served as President of the Student Veterans Association. He then went on to earn a degree in international affairs from Florida State University, where he continued as a student leader when he was appointed External Coordinator for the Veterans Student Union and elected treasurer of the Collegiate Veterans Association.

During college, Ryan worked as a Legislative Fellow with Veterans of Foreign Wars and Student Veterans of America in Washington, D.C. He became interested in agriculture by helping on his wife's grandfather's farm in Alabama many years ago. This is also where Ryan first learned about beekeeping. Ryan has since passed on his knowledge to others by starting a business selling honeybee colonies and spending a year teaching his clients about beekeeping.

Ryan was accepted into the Veterans Florida Agriculture Program in January 2019. He is currently working as an intern at the UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center in Quincy, Florida (Gadsden County), where he earned his Pesticide Applicator License from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS). Ryan intends to continue to work in agriculture and use his education and training to run an agribusiness.