The Kentucky Horse Council has announced the speaker for the May Kentucky Equine Networking Association (KENA) meeting. Ryan Quarles, Kentucky agriculture commissioner, will speak at the May 17 event, which is part of a dinner and educational series open to equine professionals and horse owners.

The evening will begin with a networking reception from 5:30-6, followed by dinner, with the main speakers from 6-8. The dinner will take place at the Fasig-Tipton dining room.

Quarles, whose family has lived in central Kentucky for more than 200 years, grew up on his family farm in Scott County. He completed three undergraduate majors and two graduate degrees in just four years at the University of Kentucky, graduating in 2006. In 2009, he graduated from Harvard with a master’s degree in higher education before moving back to Kentucky to finish his last year of law school. 

Quarles was elected to the Kentucky general assembly in 2010, representing Scott, Owen, and Fayette counties. Quarles has served as the house judiciary committee vice chairman, and has served on the agriculture committee, the tobacco master settlement oversight committee, and the banking and insurance committee. As well as serving as agriculture commissioner, he continues to help on the family farm in Scott County