Mariah works with farmers and ranchers to apply research and resources to the nuanced realities of their agriculture productions. Prior to Extension, Mariah spent the first 12 years of her career working in the field: raising vegetables and livestock across diverse scales and production methods, gaining a broad understanding and a deep respect for the complex work of growing food.

Fundamentally, Mariah is driven by curiosity and building meaningful connections between people, landscapes, and information. She earned her BA in Geography with coursework studying agriculture as the point of interconnection between ecological and social systems, then contextualized her degree on farms in Colorado and Pennsylvania.