82 / SEEDWORLD.COM OCTOBER 2017 Benefitting from Partners While plant breeders are the backbone of yield advances, their accomplishments would be limited without the help of others. For the first time, NAPB gave the Friends of Plant Breeding Award, designed to honor individuals whose career has not been involved in an active plant breeding pro- gram, but who, through their professional activities, have contributed significantly to the advancement of the plant breeding discipline. This special merit award recognized Ann Marie Thro, NIFA’s national program leader for plant breeding and genetic resources. “Ann Marie Thro is a longtime, enduring friend of plant breeding,” says Seth Murray of Texas A&M University. “Her background and experience have provided the founda- tion to be an effective spokesperson for plant breeding issues in academic and business groups as well as governmental, commercial and consumer settings.” Thro provided consistent and vision- ary leadership in the formation of the Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee, a multistate committee within the federal- state/land grant university partnership, and the multi-agency internal USDA Plant Breeding Working Group. Similarly, as an early and enthusiastic proponent of a professional plant breeding society in the United States, Thro played a critical role in the creation and growth of NAPB. In addition to her national and international efforts to justify and secure additional funding for education of plant breeders and research support for basic and applied breeding, Thro has championed the cause for plant genetic resources. @ZachGJones: Breeders discussing the need to help tech transfer offices understand seed IPR. Issue of critical importance to public breeding. “Thro has tirelessly articulated the value of and need for conservation, curation and utilization of germplasm for crop improvement. Few people have a longer and more effective record of documenting declining numbers of plant breeders in the U.S. and globally, and working to reverse that trend.” Thro’s advanced degrees are in plant breeding and genet- ics from Iowa State University with undergraduate degrees in agronomy from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and history and languages from Bryn Mawr College. Today, she serves as senior adviser for plant health, production, and products in the Office of the Chief Scientist, USDA. SW Ann Marie Thro was recognized by NAPB with the inaugural Friends of Plant Breeding Award for her leadership in forming the Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee, as well as the creation and growth of NAPB.