Kellogg Descendant to Receive Agricultural Achievement Award

Susan Kellogg-Bell

A great-great-granddaughter of W.K. Kellogg will receive the 2019 Jim Hicks Agricultural Achievement Award from Cal Poly Pomona.

Susan Kellogg-Bell, a longtime fashion industry executive and consultant, will be presented with the award at the Huntley College of Agriculture’s 5th Annual Farm to Table Spring Harvest Dinner on April 27.

“We honor Susan for her long commitment to the apparel industry, for her passion for our Arabian horses that descended from the historic Kellogg herd, and for her commitment to education,” said Lisa Kessler, the college’s interim dean.

“I am deeply honored to receive this award,” Kellogg-Bell said. “It deepens the connection I have with the university campus that is part of my great-great grandfather’s legacy.”

Raised in Chicago and Southern California, Susan Kellogg-Bell graduated from UCLA. She started her career at Macy’s West, where she worked for eight years in several retail and buying executive positions.

Kellogg-Bell then moved on to Liz Claiborne Inc., where she held a series of leadership positions over a nine-year period. From 2004 to 2007, she served as group president for bridge and contemporary brands with responsibility for Juicy Couture, Laundry by Shelli Segal, PrAna, Ellen Tracy, and Dana Buchman. Later, she served as CEO of Elie Tahari and president of contemporary brands for the VF Corp.

Today, she is an executive advisor for a start-up fashion app and a retail/brand consultant. A horse lover since the age of 8, Kellogg-Bell splits time between Kentucky and Southern California.

She serves on the advisory board of Cal Poly Pomona’s Department of Apparel Merchandising & Management, which is part of the Huntley College of Agriculture. Kellogg-Bell became involved after Professor Peter Kilduff, the department chair, called and asked her if she would give some of his students a tour of the company where she was president.

In addition, she also recently joined the newly established Cal Poly Pomona Philanthropic Foundation, which will begin operations in July.

The Kellogg Legacy

W.K. Kellogg made his fortune by developing breakfast cereals. He created a winter ranch in Pomona where he raised Arabian horses and put on horse shows to promote the breed. He later donated his ranch for the state of California to use as a university, and it became the Cal Poly Pomona campus.

Award Origins

The Jim Hicks Agricultural Achievement Award is named after Jim Hicks, a businessman and longtime supporter of agricultural education who was the inaugural recipient of the award in 2015.

The award is presented at the Huntley College of Agriculture’s annual Farm to Table Spring Harvest dinner, which features California wines and local chefs preparing food, including produce grown and harvested by Cal Poly Pomona students.

Tickets to the Farm to Table Spring Harvest Dinner are now on sale online.

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