Whitney LeGrand Ivey

Whitney LeGrand Ivey is a native of Warsaw, Kentucky, a small town in Northern Kentucky. Raised with seven brothers and sisters, Whitney grew up on a family farm. There she helped her family grow burley tobacco and raise sheep and cattle. In preparation for applying for college, her Aunt Elsie Ewbank, the first woman to graduate with a degree in agriculture from WKU in the 1970s, brought her to the Hill. Whitney followed in Elsie’s footsteps and enrolled at WKU. As a freshman, she served the state of Kentucky as the Kentucky FFA State President.

After obtaining a degree in agriculture and a minor in communication studies, Whitney attended Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa. She then earned a JD and a certificate in Food and Agricultural Law and Public Service. She practices law at Adams & Ivey, PLLC in Sparta, North Carolina, serving as a dirt lawyer, primarily handling real estate transactions and estate planning for farm families in an effort to transfer farm businesses to the next generation.

Whitney is married to her husband, Brantley, who she met as a Hilltopper in Block and Bridle. She and Brantley reside in Southwest Virginia in Independence, Virginia, with their two children, Autrey and Gus. Together they raise beef cattle in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Although education was valued in Whitney’s family, actually attending college would not have been possible without the scholarships and grants that she received while a student at WKU. To pay that generosity forward, Whitney established the Whitney LeGrand Ivey Scholarship Fund in 2021. The fund assists deserving full-time WKU freshmen who are majoring within the Department of Agriculture and have a 3.5 GPA. Through this fund, Whitney’s legacy on the Hill lives on in perpetuity.