Leading with Heart: The Story of Hoosierland Pork’s Jennifer Romero

Nov 10, 2025

It started off as a minor inconvenience: Who doesn’t have back pain when they work on a farm all day?

Jennifer Romero brushed it off because she didn’t have time for it. As the Hoosierland Pork sow farm manager for Martin Family Farms, she knew her team needed her to be strong. But as spring turned to summer, the pain continued to escalate.

After multiple doctor visits, tests with no answers and excruciating pain, she knew something was wrong. A trip to the emergency room followed by hospital admission finally resulted in a diagnosis: cancer.

Romero immediately went to Indianapolis where she underwent surgery. Unfortunately, the cancer had progressed and spread throughout her body. When she came out of anesthesia, doctors told her they couldn’t get it all.

“I remember when I was little, and we were under a tornado warning,” says her daughter, Alyssa Wyatt, who is also part of the Hoosierland Pork team. “My mom had the front door open — cleaning and listening to music. She had no fear of the storm and told me, ‘When it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go.’”

Click here to see more...

Video: 2026 T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science - Dan Weary

T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science: "Using science to assess and improve the welfare of dairy cattle"

Dan Weary is a Professor at the University of British Columbia. Dan did his BSc and MSc at McGill and Doctorate at Oxford before co-founding UBC’s Animal Welfare Program where he now co-directs this active research group. His research focuses on understanding the perspectives of animals and applying these insights to develop methods of assessing animal welfare and improving the lives of animals. His work has helped drive changes in practices (including the adoption of higher milk rations for calves and pain management for disbudding) and housing methods (including the adoption of social housing for pre-weaned calves). He also studies cow comfort and lameness, social interactions among cows, and interactions between cows, human handlers and technologies like automated millking systems that are increasingly used on farms. His presentation will outline key questions in cattle welfare, highlight recent UBC research addressing them, and showcase innovative methods for improving the lives of cattle and their caretakers.