Names in the News

Beveridge joins ANR's Small Farms team

Claire Beveridge joined UC ANR on April 1 as a small farms water conservation academic coordinator in Fresno County with support to Tulare and Madera counties. She is also part of the statewide Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, or SAREP.

As an academic coordinator, Beveridge supports small-scale, diversified and socially disadvantaged farmers in Fresno and surrounding areas in on-farm water conservation through education, technical assistance, outreach and research activities. This encompasses aiding farmers with improved irrigation practices and technologies, groundwater regulation compliance and on-farm groundwater recharge. She also facilitates small-scale farmer access to state incentives for water and energy efficiency, as well as drought and flood relief programs. Beveridge also helps to inform state water policy on the unique needs of small-scale farms.

She is broadly interested in fostering sustainable water resource management through interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches among communities, decisionmakers and researchers.

Beveridge holds a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering with an emphasis in hydrology from the University of Washington. She conducted postdoctoral research at Florida International University and earned her bachelor's degree in civil and environmental engineering from UC Berkeley. She is a licensed Professional Civil Engineer in California, an inaugural editor of the Community Science Exchange journal and resource hub, and recently completed a USDA International Agriculture Education Fellowship in Uganda.

“I grew up in Madera and am excited to be serving my home region as part of UC ANR,” she said.

Beveridge is based in Fresno and can be reached at cbeveridge@ucanr.edu.

Cassio-Madrazo joins water institute as project scientist 

Erika Cassio-Madrazo joined UC ANR on April 1 as a project scientist in the California Institute for Water Resources, focusing on collaborative projects to promote drinking water and wastewater access. She is supporting a multi-year wastewater needs assessment by the state of California to evaluate long-term funding and policy needs for water-related sanitation.

Cassio-Madrazo earned a degree in agribusiness from the Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterey and completed her postgraduate studies in Regional Development at the Centro de Investigacion en Alimentacion y Desarrollo.

She worked at the Instituto Politecnico Nacional as a researcher and also served as Deputy Director of Academia and Research in Durango, Mexico. She also worked in the state government as Head of Water Culture specializing in water management and sociohydrology.

Cassio-Madrazo is based at the ANR building in Davis and can be reached at ecassiomadrazo@ucanr.edu. She is also on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/erikacassiomadrazo04071978.

El-Moghazy joins UCCE as food safety specialist 

Ahmed El-Moghazy joined UC Agriculture and Natural Resources in February as a UC Cooperative Extension food safety specialist. Food safety, according to El-Moghazy, are measures that ensure food is free from harmful contaminants, prevent foodborne illnesses and is safe to eat. El-Moghazy is responsible for assisting California farmers and food processing facilities to enhance food safety practices by training appropriate personnel and addressing food-safety issues on their farms.

As the principal investigator for the 2-SAFE Lab at UC Riverside, El-Moghazy is investigating the accuracy and applicability of point-of-use biosensor technology. The small, lightweight and easy-to-use sensor can be used while out in the field or in a packing house to test contamination of liquids such as irrigation and washing water or solids like food samples.

Testing for foodborne pathogens traditionally takes two to three days and the process can be costly. The biosensor technology that El-Moghazy is using is inexpensive and can provide results within one work shift, which allows businesses that grow fresh produce to confirm the safety of their products before sending them to the market.

In addition to certified trainings, El-Moghazy offers technical assistance to ensure growers comply before and after inspections, as well as resources for several topics including produce safety, agriculture water, flooding, soil amendments, worker health, hygiene and training and postharvest handling and sanitation. He can also assist in developing food-safety plans and other general farm food-safety protocols. His technical expertise covers all aspects of food production and supply including irrigation water quality, hygiene of harvesting tools and transportation.

Before joining ANR, El-Moghazy completed two years as a visiting scholar in the UC Davis Biological and Agricultural Engineering department before continuing as a postdoctoral fellow in the UC Davis Food Science and Technology department for 5 years. Much of his work was rooted in the development of biosensors and antimicrobial materials for food safety. While in Davis, he collaborated with local farms and food processing companies on food safety research and extension.

El-Moghazy earned a Ph.D. studying developmental biosensors for food safety applications to detect pesticides residues from a joint program offered by University of Perpignan in France and Alexandria University in Egypt. He also earned a master's degree in developmental biobased fungicides and a bachelor's in agriculture science from Alexandria University. Finally, he completed a fellowship at the Institute of Plant Protection, Szent Istvan University in Hungary, where he studied how to extend shelf-life of fresh produce using biomaterials.

El-Moghazy is based at UC Riverside in the Microbiology and Plant Pathology department and can be reached at aelmogha@ucr.edu or (951) 827-0257.

Jakober named Director of Risk & Safety Services 

Chris Jakober has joined UC ANR as Director of Risk & Safety Services. In this role, he will lead ANR's programs and teams for Environmental Health & Safety and Risk Management, reporting to Director of Facilities Planning and Management Brian Oatman.

Jakober completed his bachelor's degree in chemistry at Oklahoma State University, where he studied land application of wastewater treatment residuals for nitrogen and phosphorus runoff mitigation and an in-vitro procedure to determine bioavailability of heavy metals from ingestion of contaminated soils. In 2001, further educational pursuits brought him to California, where he completed his doctoral work at UC Davis in agricultural and environmental chemistry, measuring carbonyls in motor vehicle exhaust.

His professional experiences include air-quality consulting on novel dust mitigation at Owens Lake for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, air quality research for the California Air Resources Board (e.g., regulating ozone emissions from indoor air cleaners, area source greenhouse-gas emissions verification, and health exposure risk assessment for environmental justice communities), and environmental health and safety in support of research at UC Davis.

He continues to maintain interest in his family's purebred cattle ranch in South Dakota.

Jakober is based at the UC ANR building in Davis and can be reached at cjakober@ucanr.edu and (530) 756-1046.

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