The Alumni Panel will take place on Friday, March 19th at 10:30 AM. Registered Participants will receive a Zoom link for this event.
To view a recording of the Alumni Panel Discussion, click here.
Biographies
Dr. Kristal Jones (kjones82@umd.edu)
Kristal has worked in the domestic US and internationally with many different types of organizations focused on agricultural development, natural resource management and rural livelihood strategies in the context of environmental change. Her interest in how people relate to their natural environment, and in turn impact that environment, began as an Agroforestry Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal. Her dissertation work with the CGIAR Consortium explored the social dimensions of seed systems in Sahelian West Africa, and the values that farmers associate with the types of seeds they plant and the types of exchanges they use to access seeds. Kristal worked as a research scientist at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) at the University of Maryland. There she developed programs that build capacity for and awareness of what kinds of information and support that teams of researchers and practitioners need to utilize and integrate the many types of data required to understand and address complex challenges that have both human and environmental dimensions. Kristal now co-owns a small applied research consulting firm (JG Research and Evaluation), which has state, federal and NGO clients and focuses on providing information to improve public health, social service provision, and food systems.
Kristal uses multiple methods, including statistical modeling, qualitative analysis and spatial representation, to explore the social dimensions of environmental challenges. She has experience designing primary research protocols for multi-methods projects, as well as utilizing secondary data from federal and state agencies like the USDA and the USGS, and international organizations. Kristal grew up in Bozeman, MT, and attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain Scholar. She has a PhD and MS in Rural Sociology and International Agriculture and Development from the Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Freddy Arturo Magdama Tobar (frearmag@espol.edu.ec)
Freddy Magdama obtained a PhD in Plant Pathology and International Agriculture and Development in 2017 from the Pennsylvania State University. Currently, he works as an associate professor in the College of Life Sciences at ESPOL University. He is also the head of the plant pathology department and research coordinator at the Biotechnology Research Center of Ecuador (CIBE). His work involves molecular systematics for the diagnostic and population biology studies of fungal and bacterial pathogens. Aspects related to epidemiology and the evolution of mechanisms linked to pathogenicity during the interplay between plant and microbes are also addressed in his research.
Recently, his main focus of study has involved emerging plant diseases of banana, including Fusarium wilt and Moko disease. Recent collaborations have allowed Magdama to describe new genera and species of fungi from preserved ecosystem of Ecuador. He has authored/co-authored more than 10 peer-reviewed scientific papers, participated as an invited speaker in several international conferences and served as a member of the scientific committee of ACORBAT, a major international conference of banana. He currently advises 2 MSc students and several undergraduates. Magdama is member of the National Task Force committee dealing with Fusarium Wilt Tropical Race 4 and collaborates with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ecuadorian Agency for the Quality Assurance of Ecuador for monitoring and detection of regulated quarantine plant pests.
Dr. Sarah Eissler (sarah.e.eissler@gmail.com)
Sarah Eissler holds a PhD and MS degree in Rural Sociology from Penn State University and also participated in the INTAD program. Her MS thesis work focused on technology adoption with small-scale coffee farmers in Costa Rica and her PhD dissertation focused on intrahousehold dynamics of small-scale cacao production in Indonesia and gendered experiences in perceiving and adapting to impacts of climate change. Sarah’s PhD work was funded by the USAID Feed the Future Borlaug Graduate Research in Food Security Fellowship, National Geographic, and the Interinstitutional Center for Indigenous Knowledge (ICIK) at PSU and was in collaboration with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). While at Penn State, she also worked on the WaGN Cambodia project and spent a month in Cambodia collecting data.
Since graduating, Sarah has worked an independent consultant full-time, working on different mixed-methods research and evaluation projects that have focused on women’s empowerment, data use, agriculture, food security, nutrition, climate change, and environment. She has worked for a variety of different clients, including the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Integra Government Services, Cultural Practice LLC, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Conservation International, Women’s World Banking, USAID, and others. Pre-COVID, this work involved a lot of travel. Post-COVID, she worked on several projects specifically to help design and tailor remote data collection methods to adapt to COVID restrictions.
Dr. Christian Man (cmanATjustruraltransitionDOTorg)
Christian Man is the Deputy Coordinator of the Just Rural Transition’s Policy Action Coalition, which aims to build momentum for repurposing agricultural policy to better align with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. He is also an adjunct professor at GWU’s Elliott School of International Affairs and an adjunct fellow in the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Global Food Security Program. Previously, he worked with Catholic Relief Services and the Palladium Group. Earlier in his career, he helped establish a certified organic urban farm, a local foods distributor, and a food policy council in Memphis, Tennessee. He received a Ph.D. in Rural Sociology & International Agriculture and Development from Penn State.
If you would like to submit questions to our panelists ahead of time, please see the form below.