Carlos Ortiz, Imperial County’s Agricultural Commissioner and Sealer of Weights and Measures, is pictured in a Romaine lettuce field near Holtville.

Growing up in Oxnard, the son of a field worker who immigrated to the United States under the Bracero program, Carlos Ortiz wondered why his classmates looked so forward to summer vacation.

For him, summers meant joining his father in the fields.

“I wondered, ‘Why am I out there doing this heavy work when my friends were hanging out at the beach?” Ortiz said.

He eventually came to realize the work he did built character and while he didn’t know it then, he was taking his first steps toward a career in agriculture—one that would guide him to become a leading advocate for Imperial County agriculture.

Ortiz, 57, was named Agriculture Commissioner and Sealer of Weights and Measures for Imperial County in December 2016, placing him in charge of a department that

Read More

Alan Phillips, new Chief Executive Officer for the Imperial Valley Expo, is pictured outside his office as he prepares for the 109th California Mid-Winter Fair & Fiesta, this year themed, “The Sweet Life.”

As a drummer for the country band the Mud Puppies in his younger years, Alan Philips had his share of performing during the California Mid-Winter Fair, often on the Rabobank stage but even once on the Grandstand as an opening act for country singer Earl Thomas Conley.

That night on the Grandstand took place more than 20 years ago, and what that younger version of himself couldn’t have known while sitting behind those drums in front of hundreds of fans was that one day he’d be running the fair.

Today, Phillips, 50, a Holtville native, husband (Kimberly is his wife of 17 years) and father of two, is the newest chief executive officer of the Imperial Valley Expo, home

Read More

Sara Griffen, executive director of the Imperial Valley Food Bank, is pictured in her office at the Food Bank’s headquarters and warehouse in rural El Centro

When your job is to feed the hungry in a rural county with limited resources where so many are living at or below poverty level, leaving thousands as “food insecure,” you know the work will not be easy.

It is the kind of work that can bring you face to face with hardship, especially when seeing children without enough food, but it also allows you to see the best in the community as people provide their time and resources to help.

This is the job that Sara Griffen has.

She is the executive director of the Imperial Valley Food Bank, an agency serving 20,000 people monthly throughout Imperial County.

It’s an agency that fights hunger by securing the financial resources and food needed month after month, year

Read More