Hello Central Coast. I'm the new UC Cooperative Extension Vegetable Crops and Weed Management Farm Advisor serving Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties.
I started in this position July 1, 2026, transferred from the southern San Joaquin Valley where I was a Farm Advisor in agronomic crops and nutrient management for 12 years.
Born and raised in Fresno, California, I earned my bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from UC Santa Cruz, returned home to raise organic poultry for meat and eggs with my uncle and sell honey and beeswax for a beekeeper in Tulare County. I traded in animals for plants to earn my master’s degree in plant science from Fresno State with an emphasis in plant pathology. I worked concurrently as a lab technician for the USDA Agricultural Research Service and promptly transitioned to technical positions at UC Cooperative Extension working in cotton variety development for disease resistance and small grain nitrogen fertility management. Shortly thereafter I was appointed to a Farm Advisor position to work in field crops with an added emphasis on nitrogen management. I spent a lot of time walking bean, safflower, sugar beet, alfalfa, corn, sorghum and small grain fields.
My collaborative research and education programs in that position included variety testing for pest and disease resistance, nitrogen fertilizer management and decision making, invasive insect pest management, herbicide resistant weed management, soil greenhouse gas emissions, soil health, and manure nutrient use efficiency. Many of the problems growers and PCAs faced in the big ag of the San Joaquin Valley are parallel to those faced in the big ag of the Central Coast. I am looking forward to the opportunity I have to apply the experiences and perspectives I have gained to assist the ag community on the Central Coast in meeting the most pressing challenges the community faces.
Informed by your priorities, my goal is to develop meaningful research and education projects that directly address needs of agriculture in the region and to deliver practical solutions. In the meantime, as I am meeting with growers, PCAs, crop consultants, input suppliers, processors, and other ag professionals in the region, I encourage any and all of you to reach out to me to bend my ear and let me know how I can best be of assistance. Help me leverage the resources of the University of California to solve your problems in the field with you.
You can reach me anytime by email – neclark@ucanr.edu – calling my cell – 831-370-3072 – or just dropping by our office at 1432 Abbott Street in Salinas. I’ll be grateful to meet you.