Becky Bolinger
Becky Bolinger received her B.S. in meteorology from Metro State University of Denver, M.S. in meteorology from Florida State University, and her Ph.D. in atmospheric science from Colorado State University. She is now the Assistant State Climatologist at the Colorado Climate Center (within CSU’s department of Atmospheric Science). Her research interests are focused on Colorado’s climate variability, climate extremes, and drought. She spends her spare time with her husband and daughter, hiking, cycling, running, and enjoying Colorado’s beautiful outdoors.
Amanda Countryman
Dr. Amanda Countryman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Colorado State University. Her research examines the economic implications of international trade, focusing specifically on the impacts of trade reform on agriculture. She teaches international trade, agribusiness, and agricultural economics. Dr. Countryman completed her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics at Purdue University and was an Agricultural Economist at the USDA Economic Research Service prior to joining the faculty at CSU. She grew up on a cotton, cattle and alfalfa farm in Buckeye, Arizona where her family continues in production agriculture.
Vincent Gauthier
Vincent Gauthier is a Senior Analyst for Climate Smart Agriculture at Environmental Defense Fund. In his work, Vincent collaborates with farmers, food and agriculture companies, agriculture lenders and land grant extension to advance solutions that help farmers adopt climate-smart agriculture practices profitably. Vincent applies his background in agriculture and economics to develop innovative solutions to make climate-smart agriculture financially viable on farms and ranches.
Vincent holds a masters’ degree in Environmental Management from Duke University and a bachelors’ degree in biology from the College of Wooster.
Temple Grandin
Dr. Grandin is a designer of livestock handling facilities and a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. Facilities she has designed are located in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. In North America, almost half of the cattle are handled in a center track restrainer system that she designed for meat plants. Curved chute and race systems she has designed for cattle are used worldwide and her writings on the flight zone and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many people to reduce stress on their animals during handling.
She has also developed an objective scoring system for assessing handling of cattle and pigs at meat plants. This scoring system is being used by many large corporations to improve animal welfare. Other areas of research are: cattle temperament, environmental enrichment for pigs, reducing dark cutters and bruises, bull fertility, training procedures, horse perception of novel objects, and effective stunning methods for cattle and pigs at meat plants.
Becca Jablonski
Becca Jablonski is the co-Director of the Food Systems Institute at Colorado State University and an Associate Professor and Food Systems Extension Economist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Dr. Jablonski holds a PhD from Cornell University.
Dr. Jablonski’s research and extension program is comprised of two primary components: 1) evaluating the farm and ranch profitability impacts of sales through non-commodity markets (e.g., local food markets, farm to school programs); and 2) assessing the community economic impacts of food system policies, investments, and programs, including strategies focused on strengthening rural-urban linkages. As part of her position, she co-leads CSU’s Food Systems Extension team.
Michael Langemeier
Michael Langemeier joined Purdue University in July 2012. Michael’s Extension and research interests include cropping systems, benchmarking, strategic management, cost of production, and technical and economic efficiency. Most of Michael’s research has focused on the efficiency of farms and ranches, and crop and livestock enterprise production costs and efficiency. He has also conducted research related to tillage systems, biomass crops and the tradeoff between crop rotation profitability and water quality.
Prior to arriving at Purdue, Michael spent 22 years in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University. In addition to working on Extension and research projects, Michael taught courses in economic theory and farm management and worked closely with the Kansas Farm Management Association. He also conducted workshops for feed mill managers, emphasizing the importance of tracking financial performance, benchmarking and capital budgeting.
In addition to conducting numerous workshops and presenting Extension and research information to numerous audiences in the United States, Michael has conducted workshops and given presentations in Australia, China, Ecuador, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa and Tanzania. He is currently involved in agribenchmark, an international benchmarking group centered in Germany.
Michael received a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His doctorate is from Purdue University. Michael’s family operates farms in eastern Nebraska.
Steven Lovaas
Steven Lovaas is the Chief Information Security Officer for Colorado State University and for the CSU System. Growing up in Fort Collins, he watched agriculture change almost as quickly as the world of information technology, in which he has served security roles for both K-12 and higher education. A published author and international speaker, Steve is fascinated with the dissemination of knowledge about security, trust, and privacy through professions and populations that have not always been steeped in details of data and technology management. Steve is honored to participate in the Land Grant mission of CSU, helping to bring the latest knowledge to those who need it.
Pauline Van Nurden
Pauline has worked in several areas of agricultural education and finance, including farm business management instruction, agricultural lending, and Extension education. She currently is an Extension Economist for the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota. Pauline’s interests include farm business analysis, farm financial management, and assisting farmers in meeting their operational and personal goals. Pauline grew up on dairy farm in SE MN and now has a small livestock operation with her family.