Kylie Holt

Lab Manager

Kylie has a B.S. in Marine and Freshwater Science from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests have taken her across landscapes to coral reefs, cenotes, estuarine rivers, wetlands, bays and seagrass beds. Along the way, she has practiced field, lab, and in silico methods to study ecosystem and molecular ecology, nutrient cycling, and climate change.

Kate Holcomb

Program coordinator

Kate is the program coordinator for the Diversified Agriculture and Agroforestry (DAA) Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Fellowship (CAMF) program. Kate has worked in agriculture for more than a decade, including founding and operating a year-round rooftop aquaponics greenhouse. She earned her B.A. from UMass Amherst and an MBA from the University of Southern Maine, where she focused on sustainability in small food businesses. Her work in farming prioritizes community education, grounded in the belief that a strong connection between the farm and the community makes local food systems more resilient.

Dr. Janica Anderzén

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Janica joined the Agroecology Lab in May 2023 after earning a Ph.D. in Agroecology at the University of Vermont (UVM). For her Ph.D., Janica conducted research on socio-economic characteristics and impacts of agricultural diversification in smallholder coffee farmer communities in Chiapas, Mexico, focusing specifically on the multifunctional role of beekeeping in coffee systems. Her dissertation work formed part of a transdisciplinary, Participatory Action Research process with a coffee farmer cooperative and other partners. The experience strengthened her belief in the power of horizontal knowledge co-creation as a critical element of agroecological transformations. Prior to her studies at UVM, Janica worked in several human rights and environmental non-profits. In her new role as a Postdoctoral Research Associate, she’s excited to learn more about agroecological processes in the Northeast and deepen her skills as a transdisciplinary scholar. With deep roots in Finland, Janica feels the happiest in a forest or by a lake - camping, hiking, or paddling.

Dr. Olusegun Idowu

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Before joining the UMaine Agroecology Lab, Olusegun was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Kyoto University, Japan (from 2022 – 2023). He earned a MSc, and Ph.D. in Crop Science from Kyoto University, Japan (2016 - 2022). During his Ph.D., program Olusegun researched rice yield and quality under varied nitrogen fertilizer applications in different ecological environments. His study was encompassed fields experiments, pot experiments using growth chambers, using crop science and plant molecular concepts. Olusegun has worked as a consultant with Meiwa Co. Ltd., Japan and contributed to the promotion of the acceptance and utilization of biochar under the climate-smart Agriculture strategy of the United Nations (UN). Before moving to Japan, he worked with the National Center for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM) in Ilorin, Nigeria as a soil scientist/agronomist. There, he contributed for the promotion of sustainable agriculture among farmers through indigenous agricultural technologies. In his work with the UMaine Agroecology Lab, Olusegun will contribute on research related to PFAS in agroecosystems, how to improve soil fertility and crop yield/quality, as well as to approaches to promote a healthy environment.

Sara Delaney

Ph.D. student in Ecology and Environmental Sciences

Sara earned her BS from Cornell University in Biological and Environmental Engineering and then served as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural West Africa. Her passion for working with farmers began there - living in a community where farming was a way of life. She completed her Masters in ‘Science, Society and Development’ at the Institute of Development studies in the UK, and then spent the next 13 years working with Universities, the UN, and non-profits on agriculture and food security programs in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Through this work she has grown increasingly interested in engaging with the challenges farmers everywhere are facing with climate change. Sara is excited to use her Ph.D. work to connect her practical experience with the latest science, and to conduct research on how advisory services work together with farmers to adapt agriculture to a changing climate.

Gladys Adu Asieduwaa

Ph.D. student in Ecology and Environmental Science

Gladys graduated from the ISARA Lyon University, France and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway, where she earned a double degree European Master of Science in Agroecology. During the course of her MSc, she was privileged to have undertaken an Erasmus exchange at the University of Kassel, Germany where she studied MSc Sustainable Food Systems. She worked with the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, where she simulated the impacts of climate change and scenarios of adapted cropping practices on the risk of brown rust development in winter wheat in some French regions. She also worked with the European Union Knowledge Centre consortium on Global Food and Nutrition Security, to structure existing knowledge about agroecology as a farming and food system in developing countries. She is passionate about Agroecology and Climate-Smart Agriculture measures that transform farm and food systems towards sustainability to promote food and nutrition security.

Ali Bello

Ph.D. student in Ecology and Environmental Science

Ali Bello hails from a rural district in Kano state, Nigeria, where agriculture is not just a profession but a way of life. Upon completing his high school, Ali's father, recognizing the challenges posed by climate change to the agricultural sector in African countries, advised him to pursue a bachelor's degree in agriculture, with the belief that Ali could be part of the solutions. This motivated Ali to study agriculture for his bachelor’s, where he specialized in crop science.

Ali joined the agroecology lab in 2022, where he completed a master’s degree (in 2024) and researched the effects of precipitation change on wild blueberries. He eagerly looks forward to extending his journey at the agroecology lab by pursuing a Ph.D.

Alexandra Scearce

M.S. Student in Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences

Alex earned a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a minor in Sustainability from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. At UTK, she studied the interactive effect of fire disturbance and soil microbial composition on oak regeneration to inform management strategies. She was then employed with the USDA-ARS to conduct crop and integrated pest management research. Alex is eager to integrate her affinity for plant-soil interactions in disturbed ecosystems, agriculture, and human nature in a project that will center phytoremediation methods for fields containing PFAS, “forever chemicals,” with hopes to make contributions to PFAS management practices and policy.

Alaina Ring

M.S. Student in Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences

Alaina graduated from St. Lawrence University in 2019 with a B.S. in Geology and Environmental Studies. In the three years following graduation she worked as an outdoor educator, ski patroller, herbalism apprentice, and on a forestry crew, where she unearthed a passion for growing medicinal plants and managing forested ecosystems. Alaina hopes to dedicate her career to becoming a knowledgeable steward of the land, with a specific interest in regenerative farming systems, plant conservation, and adaptive silviculture for climate change.

Charlie Cooper

B.S. Student in Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Honors College, Undergraduate research assistant

Charlie Cooper is an Honors student working on his B.S. in Ecology and Environmental Sciences with a concentration in permaculture systems. He is conducting Honors thesis research on the economic and biodiversity impacts of intercropping with cover crops. He is a recipient of the Maine Entomological Society (MES) Scholarship, an award that supports of his honors thesis research. As a seasoned farmhand and former MOFGA apprentice, he has firsthand experience with the challenges facing Maine farmers grappling with climate change. He is dedicated to communicating the ethics and practices necessary for cultivating sustainable agriculture systems through his role as Vice-President of the UMaine Permaculture and Gardening Club. He hopes to build a career in applying ecological economics frameworks to reforming the issues embedded in the industrial food system. 

Garrett Richards

B.S. Student in Sustainable Agriculture, Student research specialist

Garrett Richards is a senior in the University of Maine Sustainable Agriculture program focusing on ecological and regenerative-based soil management practices. A MOFGA apprentice at Fisher Farm in Winterport, he has firsthand experience working on and with organic farms across the Northeastern United States. Co-leader of the UMaine Greens program and Vice-president of the Orono Contra Dance Club Garrett enjoys activities that bring the community closer together. He hopes to run a market garden someday and work to decentralize the world’s current food system by bringing agriculture back to local communities to decrease the reliance on large supply chains.

Megan Smith

B.S. Student in Sustainable Agriculture, Student research specialist

Megan Smith is a senior of the University of Maine Sustainable Agriculture program. She is focused on integration of livestock into fruit and vegetable production. Megan worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant with the Agroecology Lab. She is the president of the Orono Contra Dance Club and a member of the UMaine Microgreens Club. Megan’s hope for the future is to grow her family’s small farm into a sustainable business. 

Tessa McGann, M.S.

Natural Resources, 2022

Tessa graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in geosciences. In 2022 she completed an M.S. in natural resources from the University of Vermont in affiliation with the Agroecology Lab at the University of Maine. Her research focused on how foresters across the Northeast are adapting their management to climate change and its related risks, with a special interest in examining experiences unique to and shared by foresters across the urban-rural gradient. She now works as a consulting forester based in southern Vermont.

Haley Jean, M.S.

Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences, 2022

Haley studied Environmental Science as an undergraduate at the University of Vermont. After graduation, she worked for UVM Extension for two and a half years in the Cereal Grain Testing Lab. She completed her MS thesis, titled Implementation of soil moisture sensors in diversified vegetable operations in the northeastern United States, at the University of Maine in the Agroecology Lab. She hopes to dedicate her career to studying climate resilience (with a focus on soil resilience), fueled by her passion for food systems and sustainable agriculture.

Sara Kelemen, M.S.

Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences, 2022

Sara graduated from Reed College with a B.A. in History and Environmental Studies. Following graduation, she worked on several diversified vegetable farms, and managed educational programming for a farm-to-school non profit organization. She completed her MS thesis, titled Improving use of soil health practices in Kansas: A study of barriers to adoption and novel incentive programs, at the University of Maine in the Agroecology Lab. She is interested in the ways in which farmers are looking towards the future and preparing for the effects of climate change. She hoped to focus on how specialty crop farmers are changing their practices to make their farms more resilient, and how they decide to make these changes. 

Rachel Swanwick, M.S.

Natural Resources, University of Vermont, 2024

Rachel graduated from Brandeis University with BAs in Environmental Studies and International and Global Studies. She has worked throughout the field of environmental science as a socio-environmental researcher at the University of Maryland, Forest Service Ranger in Colorado's White River National Forest and environmental educator at Nature's Classroom in the Northeast. Her M.S. thesis was titled Advancing equitable approaches to climate adaptation: Exploring barriers, opportunities, and cross-cultural socio-environmental collaborations for forest stewardship across tribal nations and state agencies in Maine, USA. Rachel was co-advised by Rachel Schattman (UMaine) and Tony D’Amato (UVM).