FFAR and North Carolina State University Announce 2023 FFAR Fellows

August 24, 2023

Raleigh, NC

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 builds a network of the next generation of leaders in food and agricultural research across three realms: all areas of food and agricultural science, research universities in the U.S. and Canada, and countries and cultures around the world. The close ties these students form as fellows will remain as they move into academia, industry, government and the non-profit sector. The community-building that is core to their FFAR Fellows experiences sets the stage for future collaboration. This is one of the most potentially powerful long-term outcomes of this program. Dr. Rebecca Dunning
Director of the FFAR Fellows Program

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