- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Galdi moves to UCCE in Merced County
Giuliano Galdi joined UC Cooperative Extension in Merced County on May 1 as an agronomy and crops advisor. In Merced, he will be working with alfalfa, corn, cotton, and small grain crops, as well as helping with weed management and other issues related to crop production.
He had served as a UC Cooperative Extension agronomy advisor in Siskiyou County since 2019.
While in Siskiyou County, he worked on managing blue alfalfa aphids and investigating crop injury to Roundup Ready alfalfa with Rob Wilson, director of Intermountain Research and Extension Center and UCCE in Siskiyou County; and Tom Getts, UCCE weed and crop systems advisor for Lassen County. Galdi also conducted research on irrigation efficiency, winter groundwater recharge, and soil moisture sensors.
Prior to joining UCCE, Galdi was a junior specialist at UC Davis (May 2017–December 2018), where he worked on a variety of field trials, mainly alfalfa and forage crops, with the objective of improving the sustainability of water use and hay quality. As a master's student and student research assistant at Fresno State, Galdi evaluated salinity tolerance in different alfalfa varieties. He speaks Portuguese fluently.
Galdi earned a M.S. in plant sciences from Fresno State and a B.S. in agronomy engineering from University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Galdi is based in Merced and can be reached at (209) 385-7403 and gcgaldi@ucanr.edu.
Reyes joins UCCE as orchard systems advisor
Clarissa Reyes joined UC Cooperative Extension on March 1 as an orchard systems advisor. Her role focuses on walnut, cling peach and kiwifruit production in Sutter, Yuba, Butte and Placer counties. Reyes serves as a point of contact for orchard owners when they need support diagnosing problems and solving them.
Reyes is excited about developing climate-adapted management practices and working with the recently expanded team of orchard advisors serving the northern Sacramento Valley, but she also anticipates encountering some challenges.
“Some of the challenges I expect to face are low crop prices despite increasing costs to farmers, including labor and inputs; water scarcity; and more frequent and higher temperature heat waves affecting fruit development and quality,” explained Reyes.
Reyes earned a master's degree in horticulture and agronomy from UC Davis. She also earned a bachelor's degree in biology from UC San Diego.
When describing her journey into agriculture, Reyes said that she “likes the way food makes it easy to connect with people.” She also said that after realizing a career in biotech was “not a good fit,” she let her love for gardening alter her career path.
“I'm really into food systems and food is an important part of culture,” said Reyes. “So, it was the overlap of research and food. Even though the science part can go over someone's head, everyone understands food.”
Before joining Cooperative Extension, she worked as a junior specialist studying plant-water relations at UC Davis. While her research was focused on grapevines, she started working with walnut trees, which exposed her to opportunities in orchard systems. Afterwards, she became a staff research associate in orchards systems in Butte, Glenn and Tehama Counties.
Reyes is based out of the UC Cooperative Extension office in Yuba City and can be reached at clareyes@ucanr.edu.
Sedell joins Program Planning and Evaluation
Jennifer Sedell joined UC ANR on May 16 as a program policy analyst with Program Planning and Evaluation. Sedell will be managing the UC Delivers Blog, leading publication of future UC ANR annual reports, and providing analytical support to Vice President Glenda Humiston, among other projects.
Before joining UC ANR, she worked at UC Davis for over 10 years in the Departments of Entomology and Human Ecology, and with senior leadership for Undergraduate Education. She completed her master's in community development and Ph.D. in geography at UC Davis with a focus on agricultural and environmental policy. Her research has been published in Geoforum, Food, Culture and Society, Liberal Education, and the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council.
Sedell brings experience assessing projects and programs. With partners in entomology and human ecology, she evaluated community perceptions of plant-health emergency programs in California. The work resulted in the USDA accepting several recommendations to improve community engagement in their emergency response system. Most recently, she evaluated efforts to make agricultural education more equitable, inclusive and culturally responsive for the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute, which used to include UC ANR's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.
Over her career, Sedell has worked with government agencies and community-based organizations to identify community needs. She has collaborated on institutional and programmatic strategic plans. In addition to her work at UC Davis, Sedell has worked at the American Red Cross managing AmeriCorps programs across Oregon. Prior to that, she coordinated programming for the Sexual and Gender Minority Youth Resource Center in Portland as an AmeriCorps member.
Sedell is based at UCOP in the Franklin Building in Oakland and can be reached at jennifer.sedell@ucop.edu and (510) 987-0199.
Choi joins Risk and Safety Services
Duwon Choi joined Risk and Safety Services on March 20 as an environmental health and safety specialist.
Along with his Risk and Safety Services colleagues, Choi is responsible for overseeing safety and environmental aspects of programs and research at UC ANR. He is currently focusing on ergonomics to make sure every ANR staff member can work in a comfortable setting.
Prior to joining UC ANR, Choi worked as an EH&S specialist at Mare Island Drydock in Vallejo, maintaining vessels for the Navy, Coast Guard and various ship liners.
Choi graduated from UC Davis in 2015 with a B.S. in neurobiology, physiology and behavior and a minor in Art Studio, with an original ambition to pursue dentistry, but he switched to environmental health and safety.
“In my spare time,” he says, “you can catch me traveling off somewhere in the world, going skiing at Lake Tahoe in the winter, or being a butler to my tuxedo cat, Bomi.”
Choi is based at the UC ANR building in Davis and can be reached at dwchoi@ucanr.edu and (530) 240-7146.
Paradise joins Risk and Safety Services
Jacob Paradise joined Risk and Safety Services on April 24 as an environmental health and safety specialist.
Paradise will be assisting Risk & Safety in environmental stewardship and compliance, emergency preparedness and response efforts, institutional resiliency and continuity of operations, as well as integration of new software and tools from the systemwide Risk & Safety Solutions team.
Prior to joining UC ANR, he worked in waste diversion, wine and hospitality. Paradise, who moved to Davis from Oakland two years ago, earned a degree in environmental studies from San Francisco State University.
Paradise is based at the UC ANR building in Davis and can be reached at jparadise@ucanr.edu.
Harris honored by University of Wisconsin-Madison institute
In her lectureship presentation, “Nuts! How a foodborne outbreak serendipitously shaped a career,” Harris described how in 2001, an outbreak of salmonellosis was linked, for the first time, to consumption of raw California almonds.
The traceback investigation identified the outbreak strain in the almonds at retail and all along the supply chain back to the orchard. As the outbreak investigation was winding down, her laboratory was beginning what became a 20+ year journey investigating Salmonella and almonds from production agriculture through final consumption. Studies sought to uncover potential routes of contamination and long-term environmental persistence of Salmonella during production, harvest and postharvest handling. Laboratory studies focused on methods to inoculate and recover microorganisms from almonds, survival of pathogens on almonds during storage, and evaluation of the thermal resistance of pathogens and candidate surrogates.
These data, along with information on the prevalence and levels of Salmonella in almonds, enabled the development of quantitative microbial risk assessments, the establishment of appropriate target reductions for lethality process controls, and validation of several key commercial practices such as blanching and oil roasting. More recent studies have explored the risks associated with soaking almonds and a range of dairy analogs made from them.
Since worldwide nut production has expanded rapidly over the past 20 years with a corresponding increase in consumption, Harris and her laboratory's work with the behavior, movement, prevalence, and especially control of foodborne pathogens, from the field to consumer handling, from almonds to pistachios and walnuts, has been and will continue to be a foundation for food-safety tree nut and produce research. – Zann Gates
Ferguson named ASHS Fellow
The recognition is “more than well-deserved and should have happened YEARS ago!” wrote ASHS Executive Director Michael Neff. ASHS fellows are elected “in recognition of outstanding contributions to the science, profession, or industry of horticulture,” he added.
“It is gratifying to be honored by one's peers,” said Ferguson.
Under Ferguson's guidance, the ASHS Leadership Academy began two years ago by offering online seminars to participants from all over the United States. “We're training them to be leaders in our professional society, and also to be advocates for the society,” Ferguson said. The program pulls together the ASHS foundations of research, teaching and practice, which was capped earlier this year by a trip to Washington, D.C., to advocate in Congress for the 2023 Farm Bill Reauthorization.
The current second class of the Leadership Academy will graduate and the third class will be inducted at the ASHS annual meeting, July 31 to Aug. 4, in Orlando, Florida.
Leadership training is important to Ferguson because she didn't get it early in her own career, she said. She wants to see the generation of new leaders coming up – as well as ASHS as a whole – to benefit from good preparation in this area, she added.
Ferguson has served as the society's president and president-elect during the challenging days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has received other honors. – Trina Kleist
Faith Kearns' book “Getting to the Heart of Science Communication: A Guide to Effective Engagement” was selected as a 2023 Nautilus Book Awards Gold Winner in the category of Relationships & Communication (large press).
For scientists to communicate effectively about science, they must not only be experts in their fields of study, they must navigate the thoughts, feelings and opinions of the people they engage with and with each other.
Kearns, an academic coordinator for the California Institute for Water Resources at University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, has written about what she has learned in 25 years of practice in Getting to the Heart of Science Communication: A Guide to Effective Engagement from Island Press. The book includes on-the-ground experiences of many science communicators, including those working in Cooperative Extension.
Dahlquist-Willard appointed to state Ag Land Equity Task Force
She is among the 12 inaugural members appointed by the California Strategic Growth Council to the task force, which will develop policy recommendations to equitably increase access to agricultural land for food production and traditional tribal agricultural uses. Established by the Legislature last year, the task force will meet every quarter over three years and submit a full report of policy recommendations to the State Legislature and Governor by January 1, 2026.
Historically, women and people of color in California have been blocked from stable access to land and other resources necessary for successful farming, a legacy that persists today. A recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows only 37% of all farmers in the California are female and only 9% are Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). In 2020, the California Department of Food and Agriculture found that such farmers and ranchers often lack stable access to land, which negatively affects the long-term sustainability of their businesses. Equitably increasing stable access to agricultural land in California will promote farmers' economic resilience, a robust food system in the state, and healthy natural and working lands.
The task force will have 13 regionally diverse members, including native and tribal liaisons, a land trust representative, individuals with expertise in issues affecting socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers, an individual with expertise in agricultural land acquisition and finance, a State Board of Food and Agriculture member, a farmworker representative, a beginning farmer, the California Department of Food and Agriculture Farm Equity Advisor, and an individual from the new California Department of Food and Agriculture BIPOC Farmer Advisory Committee.
Dahlquist-Willard will contribute her expertise in issues affecting socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Ashraf El-Kereamy was appointed UC Cooperative Extension citrus horticultural specialist in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences at UC Riverside on Feb. 1, 2019.
He had been working as a UCCE area viticulture advisor serving Kern, Tulare and Kings counties since 2014.
Prior to joining UCCE, El-Kereamy worked as a post-doc research associate at University of Guelph, studying plant drought and heat stress tolerance in plants from 2013 to 2014, and studying the genotypes variation in nitrogen use efficiency and plant heat stress tolerance from 2008 to 2012. From 2012 to 2013, he was assistant/associate professor in the Department of Horticulture, Ain Shams University, Egypt, where he taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses for horticultural science and served as the principal investigator for a U.S.-Egypt joint collaborative research project between University of Wyoming and Ain Shams University on improving grapevine tolerance to drought and heat stress. As a post-doctoral scientist at the University of Guelph, Vineland, El-Kereamy studied the pathogenesis-related proteins during plum fruit ripening. As a University of Manitoba post-doc, he studied the physiological role of abscisic acid in plants.
He earned his Ph.D. in agriculture with an emphasis in grape physiology and molecular biology from INP-ENSAT, Toulouse University, Toulouse, France, and a M.Sc. in pomology and B.Sc. in horticulture, both from Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
El-Kereamy is based at Lindcove Research and Extension Center in Exeter, and can be reached at (559) 592-2408, Cell: (661) 703-4678 and aelkereamy@ucanr.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @ashrafelkereamy.
Galdi joins UCCE in Siskiyou County
Giuliano C. Galdi joined UCCE on Jan. 2, 2019, as a UC Cooperative Extension agronomy advisor in Siskiyou County.
Prior to joining UCCE, Galdi was a junior specialist at UC Davis (May 2017 – December 2018), where he worked on a variety of field trials, mainly alfalfa and forage crops, with the objective to improve sustainability of water use and hay quality. Tasks included irrigation scheduling, planting/harvesting trials, and data handling and analysis. As a master's student and student research assistant at Fresno State (2014-2017), Galdi evaluated salinity tolerance in different alfalfa varieties, attended conferences, and presented research in the form of posters and talks. He speaks Portuguese fluently.
Galdi completed a M.S. in plant sciences from Fresno State and a B.S. in agronomy engineering from University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Galdi is based in Yreka and can be reached at (530) 842-2711 and gcgaldi@ucanr.edu.
Follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @uccesiskiyou.
Grettenberger joins UCCE as field and vegetable crops specialist
Ian Grettenberger joined UCCE on Jan. 2, 2019, as a field and vegetable crops assistant specialist in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at UC Davis. Grettenberger is interested in advancing integrated pest management in field and vegetable crops, plant-insect interactions, and applied insect ecology.
Grettenberger earned a Ph.D. in entomology from Penn State University and a BS in biology from Western Washington University.
Prior to joining UCCE, Grettenberger was a postdoctoral research scholar at UC Davis, working first with Larry Godfrey and then with Frank Zalom.
Grettenberger is based at UC Davis in Briggs Hall and can be reached at (530) 752-0473 and imgrettenberger@ucdavis.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @IGrett.
Meng joins UCCE in Imperial County
Yu Meng joined UCCE on Jan. 2, 2019, as the youth, families and communities advisor serving Imperial County, UC Desert Research and Extension Center and communities near the U.S.-Mexico border. Her responsibilities will focus on providing community development programs in the area of youth, families, and communities, with major outreach to the Latino youth and families.
Prior to joining UCCE, Meng worked for a USDA-funded project known as "the WAVE~Ripples for change" in collaboration with Oregon State University professionals, extension, community partners, high school soccer coaches, and school districts, and other dedicated volunteers. The program was designed to prevent unhealthy weight gain among 15- to 19-year-old soccer players. Most of the youth she worked with were Latinos and from low-income families. During this time, Meng helped develop and test the first sports nutrition, physical activity, family and consumer sciences curriculum for active youth. Her work resulted in positive developments in youth, reducing added sugar intake, maintaining fruit and vegetable intake over time, and improving the awareness of sports nutrition. Participating youth also applied additional skills they learned from gardening and cooking workshops at their homes and shared the lessons and practical applications with their respective families.
Meng is fluent in Chinese and originally from China, where she worked for food industries and started to notice the nutrition issues with processed foods and their effects on children's health. With that in mind, she came to the U.S. and earned a master's degree and Ph.D.
She completed a Ph.D. in nutrition science from Oregon State University, a M.S. in food science and nutrition from Utah State University, and a B.S. in Food Science and Engineering from Southern China University of Technology, China.
Meng is based in Holtville and can be reached at (442) 265-7700 and ucmeng@ucanr.edu.
York joins UCCE as silviculture and forest specialist
Robert York joined UC ANR on Jan. 2, 2019, as a UC Cooperative Extension silviculture and applied forest ecology assistant specialist and adjunct associate professor of forestry in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. He directs research and management activity on the Berkeley Forests, a network of five research forests covering the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mixed conifer forest from Shasta to Tulare counties.
York is a Registered Professional Forester in California. He earned a Ph.D. in forest ecology and silviculture, a M.S. in forest community ecology and a B.S. in forest management, all from UC Berkeley.
Prior to joining UCCE, York has been the research station manager at Blodgett Forest Research Station with UC Berkeley.
York is based in Georgetown and can be reached at (530) 333-4475 and ryork@berkeley.edu.
Forbes named Strategic Communications director
Linda Forbes joined UC ANR as Strategic Communications director on Feb. 19.
Forbes brings over 15 years of communications experience as a marketing and branding leader in the private sector and most recently at UC Davis. Since 2012, she served as associate director of marketing at UC Davis, leading initiatives such as the award-winning monthly Aggie Tip Sheet and major advertising campaigns, as well as collaborating with campus colleagues to promote the impact and value of UC Davis on a variety of digital platforms. Travelers who fly out of the Sacramento airport may have seen ads from the last campaign she led, which included the “You sip, we solve” ad showcasing UC Davis advances in protecting the water supply.
Before coming to UC, Forbes led marketing for a statewide accounting firm and managed an automotive aftermarket brand. But Forbes, whose father was a USDA veterinarian, had a desire to contribute her skills to an organization that solves agricultural and environmental issues.
“We look forward to having Linda lead our efforts to transform ANR from the university's ‘best kept secret' to a well-known, valued service,” said Wendy Powers, associate vice president
Forbes is located in room 175 in the ANR building in Davis. She can be reached at (530) 750-1204 and lforbes@ucanr.edu.
Scott joins ANR as payroll manager
Anne Marie Scott joined ANR's Business Operations Center as ANR payroll manager on Feb. 7, 2019.
Scott brings strong payroll management and UCPath expertise with 19 years of UC experience in payroll, employment tax and accounts payable management. Most recently, she served as the payroll manager for the UC Office of the President working in the new UCPath system for the past year and a half. Prior to UCOP, she worked for UC Davis for 17 years as a payroll accountant, accounts payable division manager and also as the payroll manager for one of UCD's new shared service centers. She is also a Certified Payroll Professional.
Her experience working in the UCPath system at UCOP will uniquely enhance ANR's transition of payroll services to the new UCPath system. Scott will lead the ANR BOC payroll team providing time reporting and payroll services to all ANR units statewide. She will also work closely with the ANR Human Resources team to ensure efficient coordination between HR actions and payroll services.
Scott is based at the ANR Building in Davis and can be contacted at ascott@ucanr.edu and (530) 750-1273.
Zilberman awarded Wolf Prize
David Zilberman, a UC Cooperative Extension specialist and professor of agricultural and resources economics at UC Berkeley, has been awarded the 2019 Wolf Prize in Agriculture in recognition of his work developing economic models for fundamental problems in agriculture, economics and policy.
The Wolf Prize is an international award granted by the Wolf Foundation in six categories: agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, physics and the arts. The prize in the agriculture category is often referred to as the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in agriculture.
The award citation names Zilberman as “a leading protagonist in debates over water policy, environmental and resource policy in agriculture and the bioeconomy,” and highlights his career as “a unique mixture of theoretical work, applied research and extension.”
"I am deeply honored to have been selected,” said Zilberman, who holds the Robinson Chair in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. “This prize is a recognition of my entire community: my family, my collaborators, my teachers in Israel and Berkeley, the College of Natural Resources, and the uniquely supportive and inspiring Berkeley campus."
Read more about Zilberman's career achievements at https://nature.berkeley.edu/news/2019/01/david-zilberman-awarded-wolf-prize-agriculture.
Davy, Mashiri, James and Kyser win award for weed paper
The Weed Science Society of America honored four ANR members with its Outstanding Paper Award, Invasive Plant Science and Management.
Their co-authors were Matthew J. Rinella, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service; Susan E. Bellows, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, and Vanelle F. Peterson, Dow AgroSciences.
The award was presented Feb. 11 during the organization's annual meeting in New Orleans.
Humiston honored by California Legislature
The California Legislature recognized Vice President Glenda Humiston and Paul Granillo, president of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, as recipients of the California Economic Summit's 2018 Steward Leader Awards on Feb. 4.
Humiston received the California Steward Leader Award, which recognizes statewide contributions, and Granillo received the Regional Steward Leader Award, which recognizes regional contributions. The awards were presented at last year's California Economic Summit.
Senator Anna Caballero and Assemblymember Jose Medina issued joint resolutions to Humiston and Granillo commending their exemplary records of civic leadership, both have served on the California Economic Summit Steering Committee since its inception in 2011.
Caballero read a resolution recognizing VP Glenda Humiston as recipient of the 2018 California Steward Leader Award.
Read more about Humiston's award at https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=28665.