Corey D. Flournoy: National FFA President 1994–95
Illinois · No. 68 of 100 · National FFA President 1994–95
At a Glance
- Office: National FFA President, 1994–95 (No. 68 of 100)
- Home state: Illinois, a Chicago native
- Firsts: First African American and first urban National FFA President
- High school: Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences
- College: University of Illinois College of Agriculture, graduated 1998
- Later work: Advertising, technology-company people and culture roles, urban agricultural education and, since 2023, National FFA’s executive in residence for equity, diversity and inclusion
Corey Flournoy did not grow up on a farm and had no agricultural background when he started high school. Six years later he was the National FFA President, the first African American and the first person from an urban area ever elected to the office. His route there is one of the clearest examples in FFA history of the organization’s leadership model working for someone who did not fit the old picture of a future farmer.
Road to National Office
Flournoy grew up on the south side of Chicago. He applied to several highly competitive magnet high schools in the Chicago Public Schools system and was accepted by the one he knew least about, the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. The school had been created in 1985 to attract urban students into nontraditional fields of agriculture, and FFA was built into its curriculum.
He fell for FFA quickly. As a freshman in 1988 he attended the National FFA Convention and decided he wanted a bigger role in the organization. That same year he began competing in career development events, attended FFA leadership camp and was elected his freshman class vice president. Because FFA doubled as the student council at his school, he was also the Greenhand vice president that year.
He kept climbing. As a sophomore he was class president, and the next year he was junior class vice president as well as the first African American FFA section vice president in Illinois. As a senior he was elected FFA section president, again the first African American to hold the post, and when he graduated he was elected a vice president of the Illinois FFA Association. All along he had set himself a goal that dated to his freshman year: to become the National FFA President.
The National Presidency
Flournoy enrolled in the University of Illinois College of Agriculture and, as a sophomore there, was elected National FFA President in November 1994 at the national convention in Kansas City. He later said he had spent several months preparing for it. The Smithsonian Institution’s collection includes the blue corduroy jacket he wore that year, embroidered “National President 1994–95.”
The election was historic and was covered by national outlets including The New York Times and USA Today. At the time fewer than five percent of FFA members were African American. Flournoy has called the year “life changing” and says it helped change the organization too. He used his time in office to argue that FFA was not only for people interested in growing crops or raising livestock, a message that fit the organization’s broader move toward agribusiness, science and technology careers.
Life After FFA
After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1998, Flournoy briefly left agriculture to work as an account executive at the Chicago advertising agency Leo Burnett Worldwide. He later built a career in people and culture work, including a role as vice president of people and culture development at Aurora, a self-driving technology start-up, and an earlier leadership role at Groupon.
He returned to agricultural education in 2011 as the founding director of the Illinois Center for Urban Agricultural Education, where he introduced Chicago high school students to agriculture and to career opportunities in the industry, work that connected directly to the school that had launched his own path.
In 2023 the National FFA Organization named him its executive in residence for equity, diversity and inclusion, citing more than 30 years of leadership in diversity and inclusion programming. That year he also spoke at the National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis, delivering a message of inclusivity to the 96th convention.
Legacy
Flournoy’s election is recorded in FFA’s official timeline for 1994 as the moment the national presidency opened to a different kind of member. His own account of his path, a city student who found FFA by chance and stayed because of the leadership ladder, is regularly used to show why the organization’s programs matter to students without family farms.
Sources
- National FFA Organization: profile of Corey Flournoy
- National FFA Organization: “Corey Flournoy’s Serendipitous Success”
- National FFA Organization: “Corey Flournoy: Paving a Path Forward”
- National FFA Organization: 1994 in the FFA timeline
- Smithsonian Institution: Corey D. Flournoy’s Future Farmers of America jacket
- Ag Biz Council of Kansas City: DEI expert addresses Ag Biz Council and AFA
- Inside INdiana Business: Corey Flournoy named National FFA executive for EDI