• Melissa Ploeckelman

  • Education Outreach Specialist - NFMC


    • MCRI - MCRI-National Farm Medicine
    • 1000 North Oak Ave. ML8 Marshfield, WI 54449

Education

2005 to 2010:
BS, Agricultural Education, University of Wisconsin--River Falls, River Falls, WI

Work Experience

2011 to 2017:
Agricultural Instuctor , Colby School District, Colby, WI
2017 to Present:
Outreach Specialist, Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, Marshfield, WI

Statement

Melissa Ploeckelman is the outreach specialist for the National Farm Medicine Center and the National Children’s Center for Rural Agriculture Health and Safety. Ploeckelman is well-known to the Wisconsin agricultural community. She comes from the Colby School District, where she was the agriculture instructor, FFA advisor and Youth Apprenticeship coordinator for six years. Ploeckelman grew up on the family’s dairy farm in Stetsonville, where she still helps out. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in 2010 with a degree in agricultural education. While attending college she served as the 2006-2007 State FFA Parliamentarian, was named 2008 Marathon County Fairest of the Fairs, and selected the 2009 State Fairest of the Fairs.

Research Interests

Social Media Marketing
Children in Agriculture
Agricultural Health and Safety

Select Publications

  • Swenson A, Ploeckelman M, Salzwedel M, Weichelt B. JA:2021-38. Assessing Facebook Advertising as a Recruitment Strategy for In-Person Workshops. Journal of Agromedicine. 2020 December;25(3):261-262. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1059924X.2020.1765614.
  • Burke R, Weichelt B, Namkoong K, Ploeckelman M. Recruiting farm parents for a 6-week online child safety survey study using paid Facebook advertisements. Frontiers in Communication. 2023 June 23;8.