Rebecca Wasserman-Olin is a first year PhD student in the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics. She received her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed her M.S. at Cornell University where she investigated consumer purchasing habits of local produce. In between her studies, she worked as a community organizer and economic researcher in Minnesota helping farmers assess the economic impact of incorporating conservation practices into their crop rotations. She also worked as a researcher at Cornell University supporting regional food systems in New York State. Throughout her career she has worked on vegetable farms ranging from 1 to 25 acres and she finds herself happiest in a pack shed. She looks forward to learning about agricultural systems in Colorado and supporting the great work of the Food Systems Institute.