Jones takes the helm as PPRI’s new director

Long-time employee Amy Jones has been named executive director of the Prairie Plains Resource Institute, stepping into her new role Oct. 4.
“The board is very excited to have Amy Jones take on the executive director role for PPRI,” said board president Brad Bangs. “Her extensive knowledge of the organization and passion for the mission were two areas the board were very impressed with during the interview process. The board is very excited for the future of PPRI with Amy as the executive director.”
Jones replaces Mitchell Lyon, who stepped down after a nearly two-year tenure in the role, having taken on the challenge at the time PPRI founders Bill and Jan Whitney retired toward the end of 2019. Jones said Lyon’s fresh perspective was helpful in that transition, noting that he will remain involved in a voluntary role.
“I believed that, and I still do believe, that it was a really great decision to bring someone new in with a whole new perspective about Prairie Plains and how we could improve what we already do,” Jones said. “You know we are such a familial organization. We are small and we have all been here for quite a while, so it was really beneficial to have somebody with new eyes take a look at the organization. What Mitchell brought in almost two years that he was with us has really made a difference on what will be the history of the organization.”
Jones noted, for example, that Lyon facilitated the completion of the Whitney Education Center, which opened this summer, and also created the Prairie Acre Club, a new online membership program, in an attempt to reach out and bring more people into the organization.
“So bringing Mitchell in was great for the breath of fresh air and for the new perspective,” she said. “With fairly recent turnover from Bill to Mitchell and then two years later being ready to go again, it felt like a good time to have some history and stability. It really did feel like it was time for me to step in to just help keep moving the ship forward.”
Jones was originally hired by PPRI in 2004 as the office manager/development coordinator. She eventually moved into the role of administrative director and worked closely with Bill and Jan Whitney and the entire staff in various aspects of the organization’s mission. 
Jones said she threw her hat in the ring shortly after learning of Lyon’s plans to step down and is excited about her new role. 
“In helping with SOAR, collecting seeds, building and fixing fence and doing a lot of the construction on the center, all of that has provided me with a great insight into the work that Prairie Plains does and the underlying reasons why we do it,” she said.

Harvest, transition
Asked about her thoughts and priorities as the new executive director, Jones noted that it is a busy time on the PPRI calendar, which means she’ll be focused on the task at hand for the next month or so — harvest.
“It is an interesting time for transition in that October is our last big month of seed harvest with our combine crew, and with our hand collecting,” she said. “Because restoration is so important to everything that we do, I’m in the field. I am truly going several different directions right now with the knowledge that when October winds down and we get into the end of the year, November, December, I will have more time in the office to devise that plan.”
That “plan,” she explained, is to talk about programming and how best to utilize the new education center, perhaps with a new employee whose role is yet to be defined.
“We have some immediate issues to solve as an organization, and then we have exciting new conversations about what’s coming in the future,” she said. “In the short term, definitely, I’m looking forward to sitting down with our board of directors and with our staff to determine what jobs we are currently handling and what tasks and roles of a new hire would be most beneficial to allow us to move forward even a little bit faster.
“The current state is we have five employees now and each day we all have a very full slate of tasks that needs to get done,” she explained. “And then each day we all have a very full slate of tasks that we realize probably aren’t going to get done that day that we need to push off. And so it will be exciting to find the next person who can step in and help with some of those tasks that exist that then can also help us grow in ways, such as programming for the education center and getting more people out on our properties.
“I want to make sure that we keep our minds open and don’t pigeonhole this one position for one need,” she added. “I think the great thing about working for this organization is if you’re interested in the work that we’re doing there are a lot of ways to help in all the avenues that we walk down and I think a person working for us is best suited if they are willing to step in and help with a little bit of everything. I think it would be nice to take a step back and really define that rather than just say we have an opening for somebody at the center and then hire that person and realize that we’re still short someplace else.”

Lyon’s plans
Though off the PPRI payroll as of Oct. 4, Lyon said he looks forward to helping as a volunteer and feels the organization is in good hands.
“I think the board made a great decision with Amy,” he said. “I am so thankful for the opportunity over the last two years to work for Prairie Plains and for Bill and Jan Whitney kind of initiating those conversations. I’m also thankful to this community, which has been so supportive of Prairie Plains over the last 40 years.”
Lyon said it was a difficult decision to step down, though he is excited about working with a business he and his wife launched six years ago. Sarah Lyon is an occupational therapist who writes content for other occupational therapists, which is shared on a membership-based website.
“The decision to transition from Prairie Plains was very difficult,” he confided. “This business kind of combines our two skill sets. Especially in the last couple years it had experienced growth and in some ways even more than we expected, so we felt like we had to make the choice. Then on top of that the opportunity presented itself where I could spend more time with our kids and be more involved on that front as well, which was very appealing.”