Midwest Regional Leadership

Midwest Regional Structure

Jerod Dowell

After graduating with a degree in Ag Management and Conservation at Kansas State University, Jerod began his crop insurance career in 2007 as an underwriting and claims trainee for Farm Bureau. He worked as an adjuster for Heartland Crop Insurance and later as Regional Claims Supervisor for AgriLogic and DCIS. He has now been selected as Regional Vice President for AgriSompo North America’s Midwest region. A native of Syracuse, Kansas, Jerod currently resides outside of Manhattan, Kansas. When Jerod is not working, he enjoys spending time outdoors, hunting, and fishing. 

Michael Carlson, Regional Claims Manager

Michael has spent the last 25 years working in crop insurance. During his tenure, he has been in the claims departments of a number of companies including IGF, JDRP, and ARMtech. A native of Paulina, Iowa, he currently resides in Emmetsburg, Iowa with his wife of 31 years. He and his wife enjoy golfing, boating, spending time with friends, and being with their three children and one (with one more on the way!) grandchild. They all enjoy visiting the Iowa Great Lakes to pursue their hobbies, as well as enjoying campfires in the great outdoors.  

Dan Hoffman, Regional Claims Manager

Dan was born in Des Moines, Iowa and raised in Edmond, Oklahoma. He graduated from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 2001 and started his career with Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance as an account sales/group service representative. He worked in insurance sales from 2005 through 2009 and later moved to Abilene, Kansas. He accepted a job with Diversified Crop Insurance as an adjuster a short time later. He went on to serve DCIS as an Area Claims Supervisor and was recently named as AgriSompo North America’s Regional Claims Manager for the Midwest region. Dan, along with his wife, Jenni, and son, Heston, love traveling across the country to visit Major League Baseball stadiums. He coaches baseball in the spring and summer months, loves fishing with his son, and occasionally slips away with his friends for a game of poker.  

Travis Gellatly, Regional Marketing Manager

Born in Wolbach, Nebraska, Travis received a degree in biology from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. His twenty-four years of crop insurance experience began in 1997 at Blakely Crop Hail, where he worked in claims, underwriting, IT, and marketing. In 2000, he started from scratch in Nebraska, working for Heartland Crop Insurance as a Marketing Representative and later as Regional Vice President of Marketing, overseeing a team that spanned North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Missouri, and Wyoming. In 2016, after DCIS purchased Heartland, he became the Assistant Regional Marketing Manager for the Midwest region and the Midwest Regional Marketing Manager in 2018. He now serves in the same position at AgriSompo North America. He currently resides in Omaha, Nebraska, where he enjoys spending time with his family in his free time.  

Caleb Cray, Assistant Marketing Manager

Born in Chester, Iowa, Caleb currently lives in Des Moines where he is Assistant Marketing Manager for the Midwest region at AgriSompo North America. While attending college at the Des Moines Area Community College, Caleb worked for Banker’s Life and Casualty selling life insurance, health insurance, and investments. He left the company in 2012 to work as a Marketing Representative for ARMtech, where he remained until he received his most recent position. Caleb enjoys playing golf and biking in the spring and summer, and he does a lot of hunting in the fall and winter.  

Kerry Brown, Regional Operations Manager

Kerry is a long-time veteran of the crop insurance industry. She has 36 years invested in this industry and is proud to be the recently named Regional Operations Manager for the Midwest region. A native and current resident of Des Moines, Iowa, Kerry studied liberal arts at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumna, Iowa and began working as an underwriter with Great American in 1985. She has been an agent for Pioneer Hi-Bred, a Crop Insurance Field Representative for Farm Credit, and began working as an Office Manager at ARMtech in 2001.

Lori Newell, Assistant Operations Manager

Lori got her start in crop insurance 18 years ago when she took a job as an underwriter for Heartland Crop Insurance. She was promoted to team lead in 2013 and underwriting supervisor in 2016. In 2020, after the acquisition of Heartland by DCIS), she was promoted to be the Regional Operation Manager for the Topeka region, overseeing the claims processing and underwriting departments. She has now been asked to lead as the Assistant Regional Operation Manager of Agrisompo North America’s new Midwest region. Lori and her husband, Matt, have been married for almost 22 years. They enjoy vacations with family, gardening, canning food, and raising goats on their farm.  

Jerod Dowell

Regional Vice President of the Midwest Region

| 555-5555
| jdowell@sompo-intl.com