"...such a happy place..."

Location is key for finance alum Katelyn Mullen, and she’s found her spot, managing grain purchases and logistics in southwest Kansas for the global food processing company, ADM.

Farmers grow the grain. Then the $85 billion ag giant ADM buys it, moves it, processes it, and sells the products that result. Making everything from pet food to probiotics, flour to plant-based dyes, ethanol to botanical extracts, ADM is on the scene around the world. And Katelyn Mullen is on the scene at ADM, where she is a grain origination specialist.

A 2021 K-State finance grad, Mullen purchases wheat, corn, milo, and soybeans from farmers across several counties in southwest Kansas. She is responsible for millions of bushels that are stored at the elevators in Plains and Copeland, Kansas. “Then we’re moving the grain out and dispatching the trucks to various end users,” she said. On a given day, corn might be on its way to Sublette for cattle feed, milo on its way to a mill in Dodge City, or a feed supplement like lysine on its way to a hog farm in Holyoke, Colorado.

Mullen had some early practice in telling trucks where to go. As a kid, she drove the grain cart during harvest for her dad, who ran a custom harvest crew. She also knows western Kansas well, having grown up about two and a half hours north in Oakley.

Copeland and Plains “are both small towns, and I like that,” she said. “I get to develop real, personal relationships with my customers. My role is a perfect combination. It brings together my love of agriculture and getting to use my business education daily.”

Her high-school accounting class piqued her interest in business, according to Mullen. “That got me interested in the analytical side of things, so a finance major made sense for me at Kansas State. I’m one of those people that picked a major coming into college and stuck to it.”

High school cheerleading camps and campus visits, meanwhile, showed her Kansas State’s appeal. “I loved it. The campus. The limestone buildings. I enjoyed Manhattan, and it felt homey. It was such a happy place, and everybody on campus was eager to help all the time.”

While in school, Mullen was eager to help, too. She served in Silver Key Sophomore Honorary, a group focused on community service. She was also tapped to be part of the College of Business’s Business Ambassadors program. Members of the group meet prospective students and their families at on- and off-campus events. They also serve as peer mentors to new students during the new students’ first semester at K-State.

“We got to share with prospective students why they were going to love Kansas State and all the opportunities the College of Business had to offer. It was so great helping them make that big decision as an ambassador,” she said.

Mullen remains a terrific ambassador for the College of Business and the university these days – helping farmers bring their crops to market and delivering the products the world needs to keep pets, livestock, and people’s stomachs full.