Jennifer James and Daniel McFarland have been named 2023-24 outstanding alumni by the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the U of A.

James is the Outstanding Alumna and McFarland is the Bumpers College Alumni Society's Outstanding Young Alumnus.

They will be honored in separate events on campus during the spring semester, including an awards ceremony and reception, interacting with students in various classes, lunch and or meetings with select student groups, dinner with college stakeholders and administrators and other activities.

McFarland will also represent the alumni society as a featured speaker at Bumpers College's spring commencement ceremony in May.

Jennifer James

James is a fourth-generation rice, soybean and corn farmer from Newport. She is part owner of H&J Land Co., a diversified operation of row crops, grain warehouse and cleaning facility, as well as an automated container loading facility exporting specialty soybeans.

She earned her bachelor's degree in agricultural business in 1994 and earned the college's John W. White Outstanding Student Award.

James runs the business with husband, Greg, and her father, Marvin, and the family is committed to providing overwinter habitat for waterfowl and institutes practices to conserve natural resources. Their land has been recognized as an Arkansas Century Farm and in 1999 they were named Arkansas Farm Family of the Year.

In 2017, James was recognized by Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture as the Farmer of the Year for the conservation efforts on her farm and her leadership in sustainability. At the 2019 USA Rice Outlook Conference, James received recognition as Rice Farmer of the Year; and was elected as the first woman to the Riceland Foods, Inc., Board of Directors. She currently serves as vice chair of the Arkansas Rice Farmers Board and was the first chair of the USA Rice Sustainability Committee, holding that position for 12 years. James, a 2012 graduate of The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers, is a member of the Merchants & Planters Bank Board of Directors as well as the St. Louis Federal Reserve Board Agribusiness Industry Council.

She and Greg have a son, Dylan, who has returned to the farm as the fifth generation.

Daniel McFarland

Daniel McFarland is the service line administrator of the Digestive Health, Neurosciences and Spine Service Line at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, one of the founding members of Mass General Brigham and teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School. In this role, McFarland provides administrative, operational and strategic vision for the multidisciplinary clinical programs within his portfolio. 

He earned his Bachelor’s of Science degree in animal science in 2015 and a Master of Health Administration from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 2018.

At the U of A, McFarland served in a variety of leadership roles, including Associated Student Government student body president, Student Alumni Board senior advisor and homecoming director, animal science REPS member, assistant event coordinator for the Block and Bridle Club, a volunteer musician at Butterfield Trail Village Retirement Home and as a Student Advisory Board member for the Pat Walker Health Center.

While working on his master’s degree, he served as a summer resident at Baptist Memorial Health System in Memphis in 2017, was an administrative graduate assistant with Baptist Health in Little Rock in 2017-18 and was selected to be an Administrative Fellow with John Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.

At Johns Hopkins, he began his administrative career serving as the administrative lead for the Pediatric & Congenital Hearth Center and Adult Cardiac Surgery programs from 2020-22. He provided oversight of finances, operations and management of personnel; managed faculty practices and clinical resources; assisted in recruiting and retention of faculty and administrative staff in four divisions; created additional inpatient capacity for pediatric cardiac services; led expansion of ambulatory clinic offerings; and grew programs in the Pediatric Heath Center and Adult Cardiac Service.

McFarland is from Keithville, Louisiana, and was a U of A Senior of Significance selected by the alumni association and was a Razorback Classic honoree.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture. For more information about Bumpers College, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter at @BumpersCollege and Instagram at BumpersCollege.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.