- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
Nine representatives of the Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation (CASI) Center recently met with leaders of two important University of California groups on the UC Davis campus to introduce CASI initiatives and to seek closer collaboration between CASI and these partner UC groups.
On June 27, the group met with six members of the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute, including director Tom Tomich, associate director Kate Scow along with Sonja Brodt, Emma Torbert, Israel Hererra, Bev Ransom and Mark Van Horn.
On the following day, CASI met with ANR vice president Barbara Allen-Diaz, associate ANR director Bill Frost and strategic initiative leader Doug Parker. UC Davis associate dean Jan Hopmans also took part in the ASI meeting and UCB Soil Science Professor, Garrison Sposito, participated in the ANR session.
CASI members taking part in these exchanges included Monte Bottens, Ron Harben, Dan Schueler, Alan Wilcox, Dan Munk, Ladi Asgill, Michael Crowell, Rick Hanshew, Molly Reick, and Jeff Mitchell. This group represented a strong cross-section of CASI membership and provided a very comprehensive introduction to the work and expansion goals of our Center. Both meetings yielded opportunities for future follow-up discussions that will hopefully be aimed at more specific collaborations.
In addition to these meetings, the CASI team also had a very good opportunity to reconnect with Greg Gibbs, development director of UCD’s College of Engineering for an insightful and helpful discussion on our fundraising efforts. Greg has been working with our core CASI group for over two years and has greatly helped us prepare and refine our development effort.