Early native Nora Pickhinke elected Iowa FFA state president

Early native Nora Pickhinke has been elected the 2026-2027 Iowa FFA state president, putting a Ridge View graduate in charge of more than 20,000 members and giving Buena Vista County a first-time voice at the top of the organization.

For Ridge View FFA, the milestone reaches back to 2010, when the school’s agricultural program began under Agricultural Instructor and FFA Advisor Clay Drenth. Ridge View says Pickhinke is the first-ever state officer from the chapter, a marker of how quickly the program has built a leadership pipeline in a part of northwest Iowa where opportunities often start close to home and grow outward.

Pickhinke, 19, grew up in Early as the daughter of Brian and Kari Pickhinke and Ellen and Dave Recker. Her agricultural start did not come from a traditional farm background. It came from time with grandparents, farm cats and combine rides, then deepened through her interest in animals, especially horses. She bought her own horse in high school, showed at the county and state levels, and later worked for two years at a boarding facility in Holstein, where she handled daily barn work, exercised horses and cared for the animals.

Those hands-on experiences helped shape the kind of leader Iowa FFA promotes. Pickhinke also built her resume through National Honor Society, Student Senate, Student Council, Group and Individual Speech, and the Iowa 4-H State Council. She was crowned the 2024-2025 Sac County Fair Queen, another sign of how often rural Iowa leadership is rooted in service, visibility and public speaking as much as in production agriculture.

Her rise through FFA has been steady. Pickhinke served as Northwest Vice President during the 2025-2026 officer year after being elected Northwest District Vice President at the 97th Iowa FFA Leadership Conference in Ames. The new Iowa FFA officer team was elected at the close of the 2026 state convention, placing her at the center of an organization that links local chapters to state and national agriculture conversations.

The job will keep her moving. Iowa FFA says state officers meet with agribusiness representatives and government officials and take part in a week-long State Officer Summit in Washington, D.C. At the same time, Pickhinke is a freshman at Iowa State University, where she is double-majoring in ag business and economics, adding a demanding academic schedule to chapter visits, banquets and conferences across the state.

Pickhinke has said FFA can be a place for members without a predominant agricultural background, a perspective that fits her own path from Early to the state stage. For Ridge View students, her election shows that a chapter started in 2010 can already send one of its own into statewide leadership, carrying local experience from Buena Vista County into decisions that will shape FFA across Iowa.