Abigail Bree Bacon Agriculture Specialist Bree joined SBDC in November 2015. She is a Certified Business Advisor focusing on assisting rural, agricultural, land-based, and specialty food business clients across New York State. Bree is the Chair of the NYSBDC Agriculture Committee and presenting member of the America’s SBDC Rural Working Group. Bree’s career began in Washington D.C., coordinating Russia-U.S. diplomatic exchanges on behalf of the Library of Congress. She then specialized in diplomatic exchanges and developed business training for over 10,000 Russian entrepreneurs with their U.S. counterparts in 40 industries on behalf of the U.S. Department of State. While in California, Bree planned conferences for the largest network of sustainable businesses in the U.S. and helped launched the Women’s Fund of Monterey County. Bree then spent a year in Chennai, India undertaking research on microloans in the largest economic development think tank in India, IFMR. She has a Master’s of Public Administration from Middlebury Institute of International Studies and a BA in Russian and Anthropology from Emory University. She is published in research and economic periodicals in California, Russia, and India. In 2012, Bree and her husband moved to Lockport, NY to revive the 6th-generation family farm into a thriving organic vegetable, flower, and fruit farm. Bree is a member of the NY Farm Bureau, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and Northeast Organic Farming Association-NY. She has presented on business and agricultural topics at several county and state conferences and co-organizes the annual Niagara County Agribusiness Forum in partnership with several county organizations. Phone: 716-210-2513 Email: abacon@niagaracc.suny.edu