Rural Roots, Forward Thinking

I’m a PhD candidate in agricultural economics. For all intents and purposes, I’m a traditional “cows and crops” production economist. But growing up in rural Idaho and working closely with producers, I found myself thinking about more than just margins and yield curves — like why some farmers adopt new technologies and others don’t, why certain rural communities thrive while others decline, and why so many people have lost their sense of optimism about agriculture. In this fellowship, I want to write about food systems, rural institutions, and what it means to design systems of progress that account for the realities of rural life and food production.

Two wheels, four dogs

If I’m not at my computer or reading, you’ll probably find me on my bike. I’m a want-to-be ultra-distance cyclist — which mostly means I can ride farther than the average person and eat more Casey’s pizza while doing it. Like any ag kid, my house is full of animals: my husband (a military pilot) and I share four dogs and a cat, and we dream of someday settling down long enough to put a few cows out back. Until then, I volunteer as an intake coordinator for a Shiba Inu rescue, helping other people find space for pets when I can’t.