There are major changes at the Farmers Insurance office at 450 Siskiyou Boulevard, Suite 5. Susan MacCracken Jain will be taking over the reins of the business from long-time agent Paul Volz, who is retiring and moving back to Texas.“It’s great to be back in Ashland,” Susan said. “I was born and raised here. My father Elliott MacCracken was head of the Math & Science departments at SOSC, and my mother Flora taught business at Ashland High School. I was proud to be a founding member of the AHS girls’ volleyball, basketball and tennis teams, and went to State with the AHS track team as well.”
After college at Wellesley College, and two Masters degrees with Honors from M.I.T., Susan spent 11 of the last 17 years working overseas in countries ranging from New Zealand to Morocco. During the pandemic, she decided to leave the Corporate/Big Tech world and return to the U.S.
“While insurance is a new industry to me, my roots as an entrepreneur and Ashlander are strong and deep,” Susan said. “In a way, I’m following in family footsteps; my grandfather Dr. Samuel Gordon MacCracken, left Chicago and moved his young family to Ashland in 1916 to start his medical practice here. I will have his medical bag and office sign here in the office, if anyone would like to see them.”
One thing that has characterized Susan’s career is taking on bold or unusual challenges.
“I founded two start-ups coming directly out of graduate school,” she said. “No, I didn’t get rich but I learned a lot. I then went from never having taken a single marketing class in college to becoming a Chief Marketing Officer in a Fortune 500 company. Perhaps best of all is the opportunity to carry on the tradition and build on the success that my predecessors have had with the Farmers Insurance agency in Ashland. Paul Volz’s decision to retire after 18 years and return to his own family roots in Texas provided a ready made opportunity for me to continue the agency’s long tradition of helping neighbors, their families and businesses, and for me to return full-time to Ashland to pay it forward in the community.”
The Susan MacCracken Jain Agency offers Farmers Insurance’s full line of insurance, from Home, Auto, Life, Business and Specialty insurance to businesses, individuals and families in Ashland and throughout the state of Oregon (their pets, too!)
“We aim to serve as our clients’ asset advocates, and there’s no better time than now to schedule a fast, free and friendly no-obligation review to help ensure that your current personal or business insurance passes muster,” Susan said. “The most important thing that clients can expect are the same office location, phone number, wide portfolio of insurance offerings, and friendly, accessible, dedicated and knowledgeable staff that have made the Farmers Insurance office in Ashland a standby for more than 40 years. We remain here to serve you and your family’s or business’s insurance needs, and will even be carrying on Paul Volz’s tradition of Christmas cookies.”
Beth Baymiller, who first worked in the office more than 25 years ago, returned in 2014 will continue to put her deep insurance knowledge and passion for clients to work as Personal Insurance Lines and Office Manager.
“We’re also proud to announce that Madelyn Richards, our newest team member and front office associate, recently achieved her licensing in Personal Insurance Lines,” Susan said. “As a former corporate executive who benefitted substantially from growing up in Ashland, I am committed to sharing my over 30 years of diverse business and life experiences, plus marketing, communications and corporate social responsibility exper-tise, with our clients and the Ashland business community in order to give back and pay it forward. And I’m proud to be a woman-owned business.”
For more information, the phone number is 541-482-8463. You can see them at agents.farmers.com/or/ashland/susan-jain, and on Facebook and Instagram.
