FFAR and North Carolina State University Announce 2023 FFAR Fellows

The FFAR Fellows Program, established by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) and North Carolina State University (NC State University), is excited to announce the 2023 cohort of the program, which includes 30 Fellows. The FFAR Fellows Program is a three year professional development training and development program for doctoral students studying food and agriculture sciences.
Early career scientists often have limited opportunities to engage with industry and government leaders or develop soft skills that are essential for professional success. To fill this gap, FFAR and NC State University created the FFAR Fellows Program in 2018 to provide professional development for future food and agriculture scientists. The FFAR Fellows Program is open to domestic and international students. Over the six cohorts since the program’s inception in 2018, 34% of all fellows are international students.

The FFAR Fellows Program fosters communications, public speaking and project and team management skills that are critical to workplace success and often not offered in an academic setting. Ultimately, the Fellowship cultivates supportive relationships between graduate students and industry, government and nonprofit stakeholders to help prepare students for a successful transition to the workforce.
The FFAR Fellows program also established the Rockey FFAR Fellows Fund to make the program’s professional development opportunities more accessible to all participants. This year six students were supported by the Rockey FFAR Fellows Fund (these students have an asterisk by their name below).

The 2023 Fellows are:

• Paul Adunola, University of Florida
• *Enoch Ametepey, University of Arkansas
• Robert Bruhn, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Emily Cason, University of Georgia
• Oluwafemi Falade, University of California-Davis
• *Hector Fajardo, NC State University
• *Gwyneth Frederick, Cornell University
• Delfina Grinspan, University of California, Berkeley
• Marjorie Hanneman, Cornell University
• Haowen Hu, Cornell University
• Erika Ibarra-Garibay, Iowa State University
• Erin Jackson, Colorado State University
• Eva Keohane, Colorado State University
• *Nicole Kucherov, Kansas State University
• Barakatullah Mohammadi, Washington State University
• Abbeah Mae Navasca, North Dakota State University
• Chelsea Newbold, Pennsylvania State University
• Yamikani Ng’ona, The Ohio State University
• Graham Oakley, Mississippi State University
• Oluwatuyi Olowoyeye, Iowa State University
• Kevin Oluoch, University of Delaware
• Erica Patterson, Colorado State University
• Xiomy Pinchi, University of Georgia
• *Katlyn Smith, University of Tennessee
• Kairi Tanaka, NC State University
• Zachariah Vice, Texas A&M University
• Grace Vincent, NC State University
• Emma Waltman, Rutgers University
• Yunqing Wang, California Institute of Technology
• * Elias Zuchelli, University of Tennessee

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Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) builds public-private partnerships to fund bold research addressing big food and agriculture challenges. FFAR was established in the 2014 Farm Bill to increase public agriculture research investments, fill knowledge gaps and complement the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s research agenda. FFAR’s model matches federal funding from Congress with private funding, delivering a powerful return on taxpayer investment. Through collaboration and partnerships, FFAR advances actionable science benefiting farmers, consumers and the environment.

Connect: @FoundationFAR