Jenna is a Master’s Student in Food Science and Human Nutrition with a Nutrition concentration. She grew up in Connecticut and graduated from Cornell University in 2019 with a B.S. in Nutritional Sciences. After graduation, Jenna moved to Boston and worked as a Nutritionist at the Boston Living Center, an HIV resource center. She came to CSU to pursue her interests in the link between diet and planetary health. Jenna is currently working on several projects in Dr. Megan Mueller’s lab, which focus on the influence that the restaurant industry has on consumer ordering behavior. She plans to analyze restaurant nutrition and sustainability practices across the US and understand how that might impact menu offerings. In the future, Jenna hopes to contribute to the growing field of sustainable nutrition. Outside of the lab, she competes for the Fort Collins running team, Front Range Elite, in both the marathon and ultra distances.

India Luxton is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology. India received her BA in Sociology from Western New England University in 2015 and her Master’s degree in Sociology from Colorado State University in 2017. Her dissertation research investigates key factors that led to high rates of COVID-19 transmission in meat processing facilities. Her prior food system research experience has revolved around food justice, urban agriculture, meatpacking, and assessing conservation practice adoption among farmers. In these projects, she utilizes qualitative research methods and social network analysis. One of India’s key pursuits is translating science into practice and helping individuals and organizations work towards environmental and social justice.

Ana is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Systems Thinking for Obesity Prevention (STOP) lab in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. She received her MS in Nutrition at CSU in 2018 and is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. Her master’s thesis investigated the use of community-based participatory research among youth to promote food access in a low-income neighborhood. Ana’s current research focuses on food insecurity, primarily among households above poverty in high cost-of-living regions. Ana is enthusiastic about building food environments that make nutritious foods accessible for all. As a dietitian, Ana works with clients to promote a positive relationship with food and use it as fuel for daily activities and chronic disease prevention. She enjoys spending time outside for all 300 days of Colorado sunshine, cooking, and hanging out with her dogs.

Annika is a second-year Ph.D. student in Food Science and Human Nutrition. After graduating from California Lutheran University with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, she went on to complete an MSc. in Human Nutrition from The University of Sheffield. Annika’s master’s research project explored potential toxic exposure through the consumption of crops grown on contaminated soils. Here at CSU, Annika currently is part of the NSF’s Interdisciplinary Training, Education, and Research in the Food-Energy-Water Systems Program working on the development of rice bran as a nutritious food ingredient. Annika is also part of Dr. Elizabeth Ryan’s research group where she is studying the gut microbiota and metabolome changes associated with rice bran in the prevention and treatment of malnutrition. Annika grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and in her free time, loves yoga, reading in the sun, and exploring the bike paths around Fort Collins.

Skyler is a first-year master’s student in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. He grew up in Oregon and completed his undergraduate studies at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, CA with a BA in Economics and BS in Computer Information Systems. Through Skyler’s studies and experience as an IT Technician at Cal Lutheran, he discovered his passion for using data systems to provide equitable solutions. At CSU he has been able to apply this passion to real-world problems as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Regional Economic Development Institute (REDI). His current research involves conducting impact analysis for the best utilization for equitable and inclusive outcomes of Colorado’s newest State Park, Fishers Peak State Park, in Trinidad, CO. He greatly enjoys his new life in Fort Collins exploring Old Town, hiking, mountain biking, and visiting extended family.

Ming is a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at CSU. Ming obtained a BA in Agricultural and Forest Economics Management and an MA in Agricultural Economics and Management from China Agricultural University. Her previous research focused on the supply chain efficiency of the vegetable industry in China. Now she focuses on soil carbon sequestration in agricultural production under agricultural conservation policies. She also conducts research on hemp production. During her free time, she likes hiking, being outdoors, and enjoying the landscape in Colorado. She also likes practicing yoga and cooking. In the future, she hopes to continue to engage in environmental research at the university and help solve environmental and natural resource problems.

James is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Sociology, who specializes in studying the socio-cultural, community, and governance dimensions of food, agriculture, and environmental improvement efforts. He has spent time in both practitioner and research settings including working as a Peace Corps agroforestry agent in Malawi, helping spearhead alternative food projects in Colorado, and leading related research projects at Colorado State University and the Colorado School of Public Health. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Sustainability at the University of Otago where he studied social sustainability and governance in New Zealand agriculture. More recently, he has been contributing to the social dimensions of food system modeling, deploying social network analysis to study food and agriculture networks, and working on the conceptualization and operationalization of cultural capital in community development. In his free time, James enjoys hiking, cooking, camping, and music.

Ben is a Master’s Student in Food Science and Human Nutrition with a Food Science Specialization. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Ben graduated from Colorado State University in 2017 with a B.S in Fermentation Science and Technology. Since graduating he has worked in the distilled spirits industry as an operator, product developer, and packaging manager for various distilleries in Colorado and as far as Western Australia. He is returning to CSU to assist Dr. Charlene Van Buiten on her research into gliadin sequestration and its potential as a therapy for those with Celiac Disease. In the future, he hopes to work on food product development focused on plant-based and sustainable foods. In his spare time, Ben is an avid mountaineer, skier, and river runner.

Laney is a Ph.D. candidate in the Ecology program at CSU. Laney obtained a BA in Environmental Sustainability and Studies and an MA in Sustainable Communities from Northern Arizona University. Her previous research focused on plant-based school lunch programs throughout the U.S. and how systematic changes can help reduce the barriers to provide plant-based and plant-forward meal options to all school districts. She is very passionate about food systems, sustainability, plant-based lifestyles, and systems change. In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors, hiking, climbing, kayaking, hammocking, and practicing yoga. She also hopes to visit all the national parks one day. Laney hopes to become a professor in the future and help educate people about environmental issues and various solutions.

Francesco is a postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University. He has his PhD in Environmental Engineering from University of Trento. His work is focused on extending cloud computing platforms with surrogate modeling capabilities, and complex networks for hydrological modeling. He is currently conducting this research at OMSLab. During his free time he enjoys all that the Colorado outdoors have to offer and spending time catching up with his friends.

Shuiqin is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Her research interests include industrial organization, information economics, and agricultural policies. In particular, she uses econometrics tools such as difference-in-difference and regression discontinuity design to evaluate the causal effect of public policy programs. She has also participated in the design, distribution, and analysis of research surveys. She is working on a choice experiment to design a water nutrient management policy to better serve farmers and agriculture in Colorado. Shuiqin likes to read economics papers, conduct economic analyses, and write research papers. In Shuiqin’s spare time, she likes hiking, mountain biking, playing tennis, and cooking healthy and delicious food.

Javier Antonanzas is a postdoctoral researcher focused on sustainability studies of food and energy production systems. He applies life cycle assessment techniques to understand the carbon footprint of diverse areas such as cereal farming, poultry and dairy industries, natural gas production and transmission systems, and solar energy. He is very passionate about sustainability and tries to transmit this passion to students in the sustainable energy courses that he teaches at CSU. Outside of work, he spends his free time climbing and running in the mountains.

Beth is a PhD candidate in Animal Science – Beef Systems Management where her research has focused on mitigating financial stress for beef operators in Colorado using benchmarking tactics and Systems Dynamics methodology that investigate various drought strategies. Beth obtained an MS in Animal Science – Breeding and Genetics at Colorado State University while working at the USDA-National Animal Germplasm Program. She is very passionate about the beef industry and the people working in it – a reflection of her upbringing on a registered Angus and commercial cattle operation in Kansas. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and toddler, and visiting the farm back home when time allows.

Becca is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at CSU. She also got her M.A. at CSU in Sociology. During her undergraduate degree, Becca worked at a non-profit farm in Seattle, WA that partnered with the county to provide horticulture training as an alternative to incarceration. Following this experience, Becca’s work has focused on food systems and carceral systems, as well as discourse and social movements. Through these foci, she has studied migrant farmworker labor organizing and hunger strikes in immigrant detention. Currently she is a part of a research lab conducting a nation-wide study on horticulture and agriculture programs in prisons. She is also collaborating with Dr. Josh Sbicca in the Department of Sociology on a study of news coverage of hunger strikes in prisons.

Following his Master’s in Development Economics and work experience in rural agricultural development in India, Pratyoosh is motivated to work towards small-farm and rural agricultural development, supporting policies and programs, and in understanding the regional economics of the same. His Ph.D. work will focus on the impact of Farm to School legislation on farmers, supply chain businesses, rural communities, and the economics of the policy changes. Prior to starting his Ph.D. at CSU, Pratyoosh focused on the development of community-based livestock farming and marketing with small, marginal, and landless women farmers in India, agricultural extension, and value chain development. He is looking to substantiate his learning from a developing country context with a developed country context in rural development. In Pratyoosh’s free time he is also a photographer and he feels that visuals can strongly complement research findings.

Carrie is a postdoctoral fellow and School of Global Environmental Sustainability (SoGES) Sustainability Leadership Fellow working with Dr. Joshua Sbicca in the Department of Sociology and Dr. Melissa McHale in the Department of Ecosystem Science & Sustainability. Carrie has her PhD in Sustainable Agriculture from Iowa State University, where she worked as a graduate researcher with ISU Extension’s Local Foods and SNAP-Education programs. In her research, Carrie is passionate about issues of food justice, anti-racism, and community engagement. Her postdoctoral food systems research includes a nationwide study of food and agriculture programs in US state prisons.

Mackenzie Gill’s primary research focuses are in agricultural marketing and consumer choice. At the University of Tennessee, her M.S. thesis investigated consumer preferences for eco-friendly attributes in single-use disposables. Going forward, she is interested in exploring the intersection of consumer choice and regional food system growth. Her long-term career objective is to investigate economic opportunities from which struggling communities and firms in developing industries can benefit. She’s so grateful to be a part of the CSU Food Systems team!

Lindsey is a postdoc with Nathan Mueller at Colorado State University. Lindsey has her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona. Her post-graduate work has focused primarily on climate impacts to global agriculture. She is interested in understanding how increasing temperatures and changing precipitation regimes impact both crop and grazing systems. Her work examines climate trends and large-scale geographic patterns in agriculture, leveraging agricultural census data, climate and soil records, hydrological modeling output, and new remote sensing data. Some of her current interests include climate adaptation through crop migration, the use of remotely sensed Solar Induced Fluorescence in crop productivity forecasting, and how changes in snowmelt runoff have impacted crop irrigation.

Food and agriculture systems have been my primary point of interest along each step of my professional path. After completing my degree in plant genetics at Purdue University, I explored a different side of food and agriculture while working at a food access nonprofit in the D.C. metro area, supporting community kitchen and farmers market programming. I am excited to be continuing my exploration at CSU, and contributing to a growing body of knowledge that strengthens food systems. In my spare time I enjoy music, cooking, spending time in the company of friends and family, and enjoying all there is to do in Colorado.

India Luxton is currently a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at Colorado State University. India graduated from Western New England University in 2015 with her bachelor’s degree in Sociology. She received her Master’s degree from Colorado State University in 2017. Broadly, India is interested in community-based research with an emphasis on social change, the environment, and industrialized animal agriculture. India’s dissertation will examine COVID-19’s impact on industrialized animal agriculture, with a focus on emergent policies, regulatory decisions, and outcomes. India’s published works include “Collaborative Concession in Food Movement Networks: The Uneven Relations of Resource Mobilization,” an article that examines how organizations navigate differences in power and influence through resource exchange, and “Mapping Movements: A Call for Qualitative Social Network Analysis,” a methodological article that highlights the advantages of qualitative social network analysis in food system and social movement research.

Currently, Hailey is researching worker perspectives in livestock operations in order to better working environments, training methods, and animal welfare. While she doesn’t have a farming background, she received her bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from Iowa State University, where she engaged in community agriculture outreach and worked at 4-H events in the area. Previously, Hailey spent time teaching children about livestock handling and animal agriculture systems across the US. At CSU she is assisting on a variety of projects in the Department of Animal Sciences, ranging from equine behavior to animal handling. She is very excited to reach out to communities to help them grow fresh produce and raise livestock in order to attain a nutritious and balanced food supply.

Erin loves being part of the CSU food systems team! Her interest in food systems and agriculture began in college when she worked on a ranch in Arkansas for a summer. She continued to learn about various food systems after college, living on a small fishing island in Maine for two years and studying seaweed aquaculture as an income diversification strategy for lobstermen. Then she worked for the YMCA Nutrition Department running their after-school and summer meal programs in the mountains of western North Carolina before moving to Fort Collins. Her research interests include food systems as a mechanism for economic development, particularly in rural areas, supply chains, and, of course, potatoes! In her free time, Erin enjoys cooking adventurously, going to bluegrass shows, brewing beer, playing frisbee, snuggling her (very unimpressed) cat, and hiking and running the local trails.

Azmal’s research interest is the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus and its climate change implications. As a national research trainee of InTERFEWS at CSU, he is particularly interested in how climate change affects food security amidst the growing scarcity of irrigation water in the Global South. His interest in food security comes from his MA thesis where he examined how the underlying connections between climate change and household characteristics influence women’s nutritional status in Bangladesh. Currently Azmal is engaged with different multidisciplinary research groups covering food justice in the US prison system, implications of the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) for Colorado’s food system, the COVID-19 pandemic and food security, climate change resilience of indigenous, rural and vulnerable communities in the South-central region of the USA, and climate gentrification and socio-environmental justice.

Chelsea has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from UC San Diego and a Master’s degree in Biology from Seoul National University. She is adopting a translational, interdisciplinary approach for her PhD research on beans, using laboratory work to answer key questions that will inform the development of outreach materials. She thinks it is critical to integrate dissemination into research plans, and she is preparing for a career with Extension. Chelsea also helps coordinate the Food Systems webinars.