Staff Feature: Jackie DeMinter, Certification Services Director

By Christine Davies, Client Services Specialist

For over two decades, Jackie DeMinter has been a cornerstone of MOSA, dedicating her career to the organic industry and fostering a culture of collaboration within the organization and the broader organic community. Long before joining MOSA, Jackie’s life was deeply rooted in agriculture and she brings valuable perspective as a farmer and teacher.

Jackie grew up on a diversified family farm in central Texas. She joined MOSA in 2005 after years of teaching high school and middle school agriculture and Future Farmers of America. She started at MOSA as a Crop & Livestock Certification Specialist, and enjoyed connecting her passion for teaching with farmers learning the National Organic Program (NOP) regulations. Over the past 21 years, Jackie has worked in all aspects of certification work, including input reviews and inspections, management of certification staff, and certification policy. In her “time off”, she also transitioned her own farm to organic production.

MOSA’s input database is just one impactful and lasting project that Jackie undertook with colleague Jodi Shrum, who is also still at MOSA as an Administrative Team Leader. In MOSA’s early days, client files were kept in big manila folders, and each new input a farmer asked about was reviewed and filed away in their own folder. Jackie and Jodi had an idea to start organizing those inputs into a database to make them easily referenced for the next client to ask about each one. This innovation was a game-changer at the time, moving MOSA leaps and bounds ahead of others in the industry. Jackie’s been managing MOSA’s materials review program ever since. Many times daily, MOSA staff answer calls from clients that start something like, “I want to check if some new inputs are allowed.” We then pull up our input database to check if that input is one of the over 17,000 housed in MOSA’s input database, many of which are reviewed in-house for our clients by MOSA’s dedicated Material Review Team.

In her current role as Certification Services Director, Jackie oversees the entire Certification Department, connecting MOSA’s big-picture goals with day-to-day functions. She manages a complex operation while prioritizing the core value of human connection. Jackie has a deep appreciation for fellow MOSA staff and the family-oriented work atmosphere that she has enjoyed for over 20 years. Another favorite part of the job is the unique relationship MOSA shares with our clients: "I feel very fortunate to be a part of so many peoples’ life stories. This is their livelihoods, and they allow us to be a part of it. That's a very special part of our work." This perspective underscores her belief that the work MOSA does is deeply personal.

Jackie’s dedication extends far beyond her internal role. She is a strong advocate for MOSA’s clients in the larger organic community, from writing comments on National Organic Standards Board discussions and recommendations and National Organic Program (NOP) proposed rules to serving on industry boards. Jackie has served on the Board of Directors of the Accredited Certifiers Association (ACA) from 2011-2017 and again starting in 2026; ACA connects organic certifying agencies to collaborate towards consistent implementation of the Organic Standards. She has also served on the Board of the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) in the past, and still serves on the OMRI Advisory Council and Livestock Review Panel offering opinions on complicated reviews. Her involvement in these groups is driven by a focus on strengthening the organic industry while keeping regulations practical and attainable for farmers and handlers.

Looking toward the future of the organic movement, Jackie remains optimistic, pointing to continued consumer demand and the growth of new organic sectors. Outside of work, she values family, food, and community. These days she spends a lot of time in her garden, growing good food and sharing it with her family and neighbors. Jackie’s guiding philosophy, which applies both professionally and personally, is simple: People matter. Do the best with every minute that you’re given, treat people right, and leave things better than you found them.

After two decades, Jackie’s commitment to organic, MOSA, and our clients is unwavering. “I have gotten to be so fortunate to work with so many people that value the organic industry and that have the same level of fundamental values about honesty and integrity and transparency as I do.” Through her leadership, expertise, and passion, Jackie continues to make the organic industry a better place for everyone involved.