SAEA Steering Council
The Steering Council is charged with overall governance of the Association, with oversight of the Association’s finances and management, and with ensuring that the membership is fairly represented in the committees and activities of the Association.
Chair
Michelle Schroeder-Moreno || North Carolina State University
I am an Assistant Professor in the Crop Science Department and Director of Agroecology Programs at North Carolina State University. Although most of my education and training was focused in ecology, I have worked in agricultural systems in the tropics and more recently in the Southeastern US for over 13 years. I have used my experience in bridging disciplines and applying ecological concepts and ecosystem functioning to developing new Agroecology courses and programs from the ground up at NC State (http://www.cropsci.ncsu.edu/agroecology/). I am very passionate about curriculum development, teaching, advising students in agroecology and helping develop our future food system leaders. In addition to teaching the typical classroom-based agroecology courses, I also co-instruct a study abroad course in Costa Rica, Sustainability of Tropical Agroecosystems, teach on online agroecology course, direct the Sustainable Agriculture Summer Internship Program at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems and serve as an advisor for the student-run NCSU Campus Farmers Market (www.campusfarmersmkt.wordpress.com). In all these efforts, I am repeatedly trying to engage students beyond the classroom, with the community around them and with the larger global context.
I have been involved in SAEA since its development after the meeting in California in 2006 serving both as the Secretary position and the Chair of the Nomination Committee. I am honored to serve as the Chair position for the SAEA and I look forward to working with fellow Steering Council members to continue our success as an association
Vice-Chair
Julie Grossman || North Carolina State University
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Soil Science at North Carolina State University specializing in Soil Fertility Management of Organic Cropping Systems. I have been involved in the SAEA as a Transitional Steering Council member for 3 years and co-chair the Sustainable Agriculture Educational Materials digital library committee. I am passionate about teaching within the realm of soil agroecology, and teach both undergraduate and graduate level courses at NC State. Central to my teaching toolbox are pedagogical strategies such as service- and cooperative-learning, which I use to help my students learn to collectively address public needs while developing disciplinary competency and skills. My research program at NCSU explores the ways in which we can better manage plant-soil-microbe relationships to enhance soil fertility in low-input and organic farming systems (http://www.soil.ncsu.edu/lockers/Grossman_J/index.html for more information). As part of my role as a professor, I advise a great diversity of students and take pride in helping them build skills in sustainable agriculture technical research, teaching, and outreach, which in our interdisciplinary field are deeply intertwined. Skills I bring to the SAEA include my longstanding history with the organization, experience with the scholarship of teaching and learning, and my passion for creating a professional network of educators helping to train tomorrow’s leaders in sustainable agriculture. As Vice-Chair I will help to build the organization in terms of number of members, committee participation, and professional networking opportunities for educators to share resources and information on best teaching and learning practices in our field.
Secretary
Nancy Grudens-Schuck || Iowa State University, Ames, IA
I am honored to serve as Secretary of the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association. The emerging SAEA organization is a dream come true. I attended, and also played a role as facilitator for, the initiating conference hosted by Univ. California at Davis and others at the Asilomar Conference Center, CA in 2006. As part of the conference planning team for the Ames-based Midwest conference in Iowa in summer 2009, I was re-energized to contribute to the teaching and learning focus issues that are special to the sustainable agriculture college, university, and organizational venues. I am associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Education and Studies and serve as a member of the Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University (http://www.ageds.iastate.edu/faculty/ngrudensshuck.htm). I have been involved in sustainable agriculture and organic farming issues since I was twelve years old -- quite a stretch of time. Professionally, my training is in plant pathology and entomology, and also educational ethnography and adult education (PhD Cornell University 1998). Academically, I conduct research in program evaluation, with a focus on environmental education and sustainable agriculture education. I am assistant editor of the Journal of Agriculture and Human Values, an activity which keeps me up-to-date on activities world-wide in the field. I am hoping to fill the secretary position because I have experience with this task, having recently served as Secretary and member of the Executive Board of our Faculty Senate here at ISU. I also served on the Board of the Extension Education Evaluation "TIG" of the American Evaluation Association. Keeping a track record is important to me, as is assisting an organization to remain transparent in its activities; good meeting notes are humble but they help in this regard.
Treasurer
James (Sandy) Rikoon || Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security || University of Missouri
I have the (rather lofty and perhaps undeserved!) title of Curators Distinguished Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri and Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security. My training and much of my research is in the areas of political ecology, sustainable development and environmental sociology, and focuses on agriculture and environmental issues in the US Midwest and Eastern Europe. Following John Ikerd’s retirement, I directed the Community Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture Program from 2001-2009. In the mid-2000s, I led the effort that successfully established a major and minor in Sustainable Agriculture in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at Missouri. I have been involved with the SAEA since the outset and have participated in the writing of the organization’s bylaws and non-profit organization application, and in other activities. As much as I do not like to admit it, I seem to have acquired some organizational and administrative abilities over the years, and I believe totally in the goals and work of the SAEA.
Past Chair
Damian Parr || University of California, Davis
I am currently a Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Education Postdoctoral Fellow at the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute. I began organic farming in high school (1989), graduated from the UCSC Farm and Garden Apprenticeship Program (1991) and Environmental Studies-Agroecology B.A. (2000). I hold a M.Sc. in International Agriculture Development (2003) and a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Environmental Education from the University of California at Davis (2009). By working on-farm, on-campus, and in community, I have focused my scholarship on developing an integrative approach to practical and theoretical knowledge in the interdisciplinary sciences and humanities. My professional interests include organic agriculture, experiential and transformational learning, critical pedagogy, and participatory action research. I am currently working with faculty and students to launch the University of California undergraduate major in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems, at Davis. In serving as the Past Chair I would like to continue my efforts at facilitating the development of the SAEA. I contribute knowledge and skills gained from having collaboratively organized the 2006 and 2007 national conferences and staffed the Implementation Committee, which founded the SAEA organization.
Student Representative
Jennifer Gardner || Cornell University
I am a doctoral candidate in Soil and Crop Sciences at Cornell University. My current research combines theories and methods from the natural and social sciences to address the problem of nitrogen leaching losses from intensive grain agriculture in the upper Mississippi River Basin, and the resulting hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico. I have been a member of a sustainable agriculture graduate student organization, the New World Agriculture and Ecology Group (NWAEG) at Cornell for four years, and was president of the organization for two years. With members of NWAEG and other partners, I helped to organize the second Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture Education Conference in 2007, and was chair of the facilitation workgroup, which developed and coordinated the format and facilitation techniques of that conference. I have attended all three national conferences on sustainable agriculture education and have been a member of the SAEA since its formation. I am excited to bring my organizational experiences, skills in facilitation, and my commitment to expanding opportunities for teaching and learning about sustainable agriculture—at Cornell and more broadly—to the SAEA Steering Council.
Student Representative
Ethan Lewis || University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
I have a bachelor’s degree from Northland College in Naturalist Science. I am currently working on my Initial Licensure/M.Ed. in Agriculture Education at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. My involvement in sustainable agriculture started in 2007 when I started volunteering for Central Rivers Farmshed in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. In 2009, I became an AmeriCorps Intern with this organization. In this position I became the sole events coordinator for the Stevens Point Farmer’s Market and Farmshed activities at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair. In this position, I had multiple duties, including Plover Wisconsin Farmer’s and Artisan’s Market Coordinator, preparation and delivery of public presentations about sustainable foods, an organic farm internship, and website development and management. This has led me to where I am now, with the goal of educating young people about sustainable ways through which to grow and raise our food. In the process I aim to reconnect people with the land and to promote a sustainable land use ethic in our society. I am a member of the North American Association for Environmental Education. Through this nationwide organization I have an improved ability to connect with professionals in sustainable agriculture and urban gardening. This in combination with being an Agriculture Education M.Ed. candidate at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, provides me with access to current and future agriculture educators with which to network about SAEA.
Student Representative
Mae Petrehn || Iowa State University Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture
I discovered a passion for sustainable agriculture my first year of college in 2003 because it enabled me to see connections between human communities and environmental issues. Today at Iowa State, I draw on the Departments of Sociology and Natural Resource, Ecology & Management to research conservation and grazing management in Iowa. I have developed skills as a professional sociologist, researcher and educator in the Midwest’s budding grass-fed livestock industry. I am familiar with coordinating diverse groups of people in the agricultural community, hosting events, and facilitating dialogue through a variety of roles, such as:
- Public relations coordinator for student association at Northland College, 2004-2006.
- Interpreter at dairy barn exhibit at Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead, where I milked a cow twice daily while interacting with ~500 people/day.
- In my third year of training to become certified to teach Holistic Management, via a New Mexico based organization interested in teaching natural resource management and environmental decision-making.
- I was actively involved in planning and implementing the 2009 SAEA conference here in Ames, Iowa.
With extensive experience on over eight farms and ranches in five states, from market garden to 30,000 acre ranch, I’ve developed a sensibility of not only how my generation grasps sustainable agriculture as a concept, but what it takes to do it. This sense drives me to connect institutional, academic educational communities with localized ‘grassroots’ efforts.
Member Representative
Julie Cotton || Michigan State University
I am Academic Specialist for Michigan State University’s multidisciplinary Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems undergraduate specialization and the Ecological Food and Farming Systems graduate specialization. I help develop curriculum, teach, support student research, market, and maintain websites for these two programs, which include a spectrum of students interested in sustainable agriculture perspectives. I have background in plant pathology, entomology, urban and agroecology, and food justice issues, among other life experiences.
My post-secondary education at Texas A&M and graduate degree at University of Michigan (U-M), followed by my position at Michigan State University (MSU), informed my perspective on the role and challenges of land grant institutions in agriculture. I served on the SAEA planning committee for the recent conference in Ames, Iowa, where I facilitated and presented for attendees. Among my food system work, I served as the initial coordinator of the campus urban agriculture effort and student Sustainable Agriculture Work Group at U-M, conduct integrated ecological research with the Detroit urban agriculture movement, and currently serve as the secretary on my local food cooperative Board of Directors.
I offer a diversity of organizational and outreach experience, an academic advocacy perspective, and a desire to help SAEA utilize its membership to gather essential data on emerging academic programs in sustainable agriculture and food systems.
Member Representative
Kim Niewolny || Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education at Virginia Tech. My scholarly interests focus on the role adult and community education plays in the development of community food systems. I do this within the contexts of beginning farmer/farm worker education; social movement learning; community-based participatory research; and adult learning theory from experiential, transformative, and sociocultural perspectives. I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses in education and sociology by drawing upon critical pedagogy, experiential, and service learning frameworks. I currently sit on a multidisciplinary task force that is responsible for developing Virginia Tech’s undergraduate minor in Civic Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS). My Ph.D. and M.S. degrees are in Adult and Extension Education from Cornell University. I also hold a M.P.S degree in Community and Rural Development from Cornell and a B.S. degree in Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. I welcome the opportunity to serve on the SAEA Steering Council as a Member Representative. My direct involvement with the SAEA began with the 2007 conference. In addition to serving on the Steering Council, I am currently the co-Chair of the Outreach and Membership Committee. As part of the Outreach and Membership committee, I worked alongside the 2009 conference committee to organize the 3rd SAEA conference in Iowa. I am eager to continue supporting SAEA’s growth by engaging with a diversity of stakeholders that comprise the field of sustainable agriculture education. My goals include enhancing virtual learning opportunities through the SAEA website, building new organizational alliances and partnerships, and increasing our engagement in “non-formal” agricultural education.
Member Representative
Zeno W. Wicks III || South Dakota State University
I am a Full Professor of Plant Science with 30 years of University teaching and research experience. I am a corn breeder with extensive experience in traditional breeding methods. I teach Introductory Crop Production, Crop Improvement and graduate Experimental Design. I coordinate our internship program and International courses for our Agriculture College. I lead two of those courses: one to West Africa and one to Hudson’s Bay. Our University has a traditional large scale agriculture program with limited but increasing interest in sustainable agriculture. I have successful grant experience with SARE, NCGA, USDA, and the Bush and Kellogg Foundations. My PI and coPI grant totals exceed $2 million. I was a research and teaching Fulbright Scholar in the Ivory Coast. I also taught in Kunming, China as an exchange professor. I have my Professional Fundraising Certificate from the University of Indiana School for Philanthropy and an Outcome Based Education Certification from Alverno College. I am an entrepreneur with 7 partnered startup companies including real estate investment, natural compound FDA registration, venture capital,investment fund raising and a credit bureau,. I serve on the SD Buy Fresh/ Buy Local board, as a member of the Northern Plains Agriculture Society and a grant/manuscript reviewer for several National Organizations. What I bring to the group is a more traditional, Land Grant view of University related agricultural teaching, outreach and research, fund raising experience, thoughts on resume driven student engagement and an extensive background in writing and quantitative reasoning across the curriculum.
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