Loren Booth

Honorary Degrees
 
 

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California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo​

Loren Booth is a fifth-generation Californian, born in Pasadena. She is one of six children of Frank “Otis” Booth, Jr., who started family-owned and operated Booth Ranches in 1957, with 40 acres near the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Over the decades, Booth Ranches has grown significantly, boasting more than 8,000 acres of premium citrus groves, 4,000 acres of cattle ranch land and a 300 acre Quarter Horse farm that raises more than one dozen show horses a year. Today, Booth Ranches is a vertically integrated citrus operation growing, packing and marketing their products all over the world.

Ms. Booth moved to the San Joaquin Valley to work her family's cow and calf operation in 1975, after studying animal science at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. After graduating from the California Agricultural Leadership program in 1998, she became more involved in the family’s citrus operation, working closely with her father and serving as general manager until his passing in 2008, after which she assumed the role of president of the company.

Ms. Booth has demonstrated leadership throughout her career. She serves on the California Agriculture Leadership Foundation Board of Directors; Friant Water Authority Board of Directors, representing the Hills Valley Irrigation District as board chair; the Ann Reimers Foundation; the Otis Booth Foundation; Children's Institute Board of Trustees; and the Reining Horse Foundation. She is also a member of the East Kings River Groundwater Coalition and Western Growers Association Board of Directors. She was also the first woman to serve as a board member for the Citrus Research Board.

Ms. Booth credits much of her success to the California Agricultural Leadership program, run by the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation in partnership with Cal Poly and three other California universities.

Ms. Booth’s commitment to agriculture has been demonstrated through the philanthropic activity of the Otis Booth Foundation, for which she is a trustee and vice president. In 2013, she was honored as one of the first recipients of the Boswell-Booth Service Award from the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation for a $5 million gift to the Agriculture Leadership program. She continues to champion future leaders in California agriculture and recently donated to the Cal Poly College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences for the planned Science and Agriculture Research and Teaching Center.

In recognition of her dedicated work and visionary leadership in the agriculture industry, the California State University Board of Trustees and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo are proud to confer upon Ms. Loren Booth the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.