Dr. Alan Foutz attended graduate school at Colorado State University, finished his Pd.D. in plant genetics at the University of Arizona and was a professor at California Polytechnic State University. Foutz served as Vice President and President of the Colorado Farm Bureau, the state's largest general agriculture organization. He has also represented Colorado on numerous national trade, commodity, and farm advisory boards, including the National Sunflower Board of Directors and the American Farm Bureau Wheat Advisory Committee. Foutz is a minister at the First Presbyterian Church in Kimbal, Nebraska.