Annemiek M Schilder

Annemiek Schilder is a descendant of a long line of dairy farmers in the northwest of The Netherlands. Her grandfather, who farmed well into his nineties, inspired her to follow a career in agriculture. She completed her primary and secondary education in The Netherlands after which she embarked on undergraduate studies in Agronomy at the University of University of Louisiana in Lafayette, Louisiana. After obtaining her B.S. degree and an appreciation of the Cajun culture, she studied Plant Sciences at Wageningen Agricultural University in Wageningen, the Netherlands. Subsequently, she obtained her MS and PhD degrees in Plant Pathology at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, while wandering the wheat fields of upstate New York in search of fungal and viral diseases. She then moved to Nigeria, Africa, fulfilling a long-time dream to work in agricultural development, and spent 3 years as a postdoctoral fellow at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, researching legume and cassava diseases, seed health and plant quarantine issues. During the next 20 years, she worked as an Asst./Assoc. Professor in Small Fruit Pathology at Michigan State University on diagnosis, epidemiology and management of diseases of grapes and berry crops. Her appointment comprised research, extension and teaching and included extensive collaborations with entomologists, horticulturists, plant breeders, agricultural economists, agricultural engineers, extension educators, private consultants and growers. She is particularly interested in sustainable disease management and crop production, including organic and regenerative approaches.