Darlene Knipe is a state specialist with the University of Illinois Extension in marketing and business development. Her areas of focus include entrepreneurship and agricultural enterprise development. She has presented local, regional and national workshops and seminars on a variety of topics including target marketing, entrepreneurship and brand marketing for agricultural products. She has worked internationally, providing technical support for entrepreneurship programs targeted to developing countries.

Knipe has served as Principal Investigator of numerous projects involving the development of quality driven food supply chains that give producers of value-added agricultural products better market access. She is the chief architect of the web based marketing tool known as National Food Industry MarketMaker and is a member of the Executive Committee for Illinois Extension's Initiative for the Development of Entrepreneurship in Agriculture..

Knipe has worked in the field of small business management and development for over 20 years. She is co author of "Going Solo….Creative Tools for Teaching Entrepreneurship" and is currently a board member of the Illinois State Microenterprise Initiative. Knipe has a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from The Ohio State University and a Masters in Business Administration from The University of Connecticut with an emphasis in Finance and Accounting.