Team

Institutional Collaborators

Lori Hoagland, Professor, Soil Microbial Ecology, Purdue University
Dr. Hoagland leads a research program focused on supporting the continued growth and long-term sustainability of local, organic specialty crop production systems. The long-term goal of her research program is to help specialty crop growers improve the productivity, quality and safety of their crops while protecting environmental health. To accomplish this goal, her lab studies soil microbial ecology and beneficial plant-soil-microbial relationships. As part of the TOMI project, she and her lab group are investigating ways to make soils more disease suppressive by promoting populations of beneficial soil microbes that can suppress disease causing pathogens via multiple biocontrol strategies. They are also investigating mechanisms regulating induced systemic resistance in tomato, and looking for ways to integrate selection for this trait into the TOMI breeding program. She teaches an undergraduate course focusing on ‘Urban Agriculture’, and a graduate level course focusing on ‘Plant Microbiomes’. More information about her research and associated teaching and engagement activities can be found at the following website: https://www.purdue.edu/hla/sites/hoaglandlab/

Ambar Carvallo Lopez, Ph.D. Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ambar is currently a Ph.D. student in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics program at UW-Madison. She is interested in developing climate-resilient and locally adapted crops, and her work focuses on developing tomato varieties that are adapted for organic production in the Midwest, focusing on flavor and disease resistance. Her work with the TOMI project consists of evaluating and selecting different breeding lines in the open field and high tunnel systems. Fruit tasting is her favorite part of the process!

Cristian Andres Salinas Castillo, Purdue University. Cristian is a PhD student in Ecological Sciences and Engineering (ESE) at Purdue University, in the Dr. Hoagland Soil Microbial Ecology Lab. He works in plant microbiome and the effect of the environment on microbial composition and functions. During the TOMI III project, Cristian will focus on studying the effect of crossing on the tomato seedborne microbiome and the induced systemic resistance via beneficial microorganisms.

Jeanine Davis, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist, North Carolina State University
Dr. Jeanine Davis is an associate professor and extension specialist in the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University.  Her research and extension program, the NCAlternative Crops and Organics Program, is based at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center near Asheville, NC. For over 35 years, her program has helped farmers improve the profitability of their forests and farms by growing new crops, adopting forest farming practices, transitioning to organic agriculture, and incorporating sustainable vegetable production practices. Subjects of her current research and extension programs include goldenseal, ginseng, black cohosh, bloodroot, ramps, hops, truffles, Chinese medicinal herbs, organic tomatoes, and hemp. She is also the lead author on the book “Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals”. She is a founding board member of the Organic Growers School, board member for the Veterans Healing Farm, and an advisor to the NC Herb Association and the NC Tomato Growers Association.

Joel Davis, Faculty Research Assistant, Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University

Julie Dawson, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Julie Dawson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Horticulture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her background is in organic plant breeding and participatory research. Before arriving at UW-Madison, she worked on wheat breeding for artisanal bread making quality with farmers in Washington, France, and New York. In Wisconsin, she is working with other plant breeders to test varieties with organic farmers and local chefs, particularly related to flavor and quality in direct market vegetables. She also is working on tomato and carrot variety trialing for flavor and adaptation to organic conditions, including season extension using hoop-houses.

Henrique Petry Feiler, Purdue University. Henrique is a Ph.D. student in Agronomy at Purdue University, working in the Dr. Hoagland Soil Microbial Ecology Lab. His research focuses on microbial ecology and its applications to soil-microbe-plant interactions. During the TOMI III project, he will work on identifying genetic markers in tomatoes associated with microbiome-mediated suppression of foliar diseases

Alice Formiga, Assistant Professor of Practice, Oregon State University; Executive Director of eOrganic: Alice Formiga conducts outreach for many organic research projects through eOrganic and the Oregon IPM Center. For the TOMI project, she will be conducting webinars, and publishing articles, videos and links to all the project deliverables and announcements on this website and in the eOrganic newsletter.

Sanjun Gu, Horticulture Specialist, the Cooperative Extension Program of North Carolina A&T State University
Dr. Gu comes to N.C. A&T State University from Lincoln University of Missouri, where he served as the State Horticulture Specialist and as an Assistant Professor. Prior to that, Dr. Gu was the Viticulture Program Leader at the Kentucky State University. Dr. Gu’s areas of expertise and interest include organic and conventional vegetable production, vegetable grafting, small fruit production, season extension with high tunnels, plant tissue culture, and plant breeding. He also serves as the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Co-coordinator for N.C. A&T State University. Gu’s research goal is to increase on-farm efficiency and profitability while maintaining environmental sustainability for the target audience- small, limited-resource farmers in North Carolina. Gu’s current focus is on vegetable grafting and season extension techniques, both organic and conventional, for vegetable and small fruit production. He also conducts applied research on cultivar evaluations such as for heirloom tomato, bell pepper, sweet corn, and salad greens.

Thomas Hickey, University of Wisconsin Madison

Emmy Landgraver, Oregon State University: Emma is a Faculty Research Assistant in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University. She works for Dr. Jim Myers, managing his farm and greenhouse vegetable breeding projects. She currently works on many vegetable crops, like tomatoes, corn, broccoli, beans, peas, and squash. Previously she has worked on blueberry breeding, pear and apple diseases, and turf diseases. Her MS is in Plant Pathology from UW-Madison. Her work with the TOMI project consists of helping to maintain the summer field plots and making crosses in the greenhouse during the winter months.

Katie Learn, North Carolina State University: Katie Learn is a Research Associate in the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University. She is stationed at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River, outside of Asheville, NC. She works with a variety of crops including organic tomatoes, truffles, hemp, hops, woodland botanicals, and Chinese medicinal herbs. She earned her Master’s in Horticultural Science from NC State in 2022 with a project about trialing heirloom-type tomato varieties in organic and conventional settings. In the TOMI 3 project, she will manage a research station trial as well as oversee the on-farm collaboration in North Carolina.

Marian Luis, Assistant Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Marian Luis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her work aims to integrate research and extension efforts to develop sustainable crop disease management strategies against fungal diseases in tropical crops. In the TOMI 3 project, she will be involved in studying the different factors that affect the survival and efficacy of biocontrol agents.

James R. Myers, Professor of Vegetable Breeding and Genetics, Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University
Dr. Myers holds the Baggett-Frazier Endowed Chair of Vegetable Breeding and Genetics in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University. He works on a number of crops including dry and snap bean, edible podded pea, broccoli, pepper, tomato, winter and summer squash, and sweet corn. Prior to employment at OSU, he worked as a dry bean breeder at University of Idaho. His main interest has been to improve vegetable varieties for disease resistance and human nutrition while maintaining quality and productivity in improved varieties. Myers is the project director of NOVIC (Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative) and is also breeding tomatoes, broccoli, and summer squash for organic systems. A new venture is to breed for taste and quality through the Culinary Breeding Network. His latest variety release is the high anthocyanin tomato 'Indigo Rose' with two more cherry types on the way.

(Joseph) David Peery, Purdue University
David is a PhD student in Agricultural Engineering at Purdue University, in the Agricultural Informatics Lab. He works on software and data science applications in agriculture and plant science. For the TOMI project, he is performing a participatory design research workshop with tomato breeders, building a decision support tool for tomato variety selection, and doing tomato disease modeling.

Cathleen McCluskey, Outreach Director, Organic Seed Alliance
Cathleen McCluskey is the outreach director for Organic Seed Alliance. She supports OSA’s online and print communications, and the coordination of regional and national outreach efforts. Cathleen is also the chair of the biennial Organic Seed Growers Conference. She has worked on food sovereignty campaigns; helped launch a local seed library; and researches the social, biological, and economic impacts of on-farm genetic diversity. Cathleen holds an MS in Agroecology from University of Wisconsin–Madison and is currently pursuing graduate studies in environment and resources through the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Marissa Nix, University of Wisconsin Madison

Ankita Raturi, Assistant Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Purdue University. Ankita is an assistant professor at Purdue University, where she’s run the Agricultural Informatics Lab since 2019. She practices community-engaged research, participatory design, and open-source software engineering to improve resilience and sustainability in food and farming systems. In TOMI3, she and her team will design and development decision support tools to support variety trial selection and disease management.

Lane Selman, Assistant Professor of Practice, Oregon State UniversityAssistant Professor of Practice, Culinary Breeding Network, Oregon State University, Department of Horticulture. She has a Bachelors degree in Agronomy and a Masters in Entomology, both from the University of Florida. Since 2005, she has worked with organic vegetable farmers on collaborative research projects. In 2012, Lane created the Culinary Breeding Network to increase communication and collaboration between plant breeders, seed growers, fresh market vegetable farmers, produce buyers and chefs to improve quality in vegetables with a focus on public and independent open-source organic breeding work. For TOMI 3, Lane will be organizing events and festivals, and creating marketing materials.

Jared Zystro, Research and Education Assistant Director, Organic Seed Alliance
Jared Zystro is Organic Seed Alliance’s research and education assistant director. He has an M.S. and Ph.D. in plant breeding and plant genetics from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where he studied efficient methods of developing new organic sweet corn varieties. Jared has worked in the organic seed industry for over 15 years, managing seed production at two farms and conducting research and education projects with OSA. He currently manages OSA’s regional development in California, conducts participatory breeding projects and variety trials, and teaches farmers about seed production and plant breeding at workshops, conferences, and field days. He lives in the coastal town of Arcata, CA, with his wife and son.

TOMI Alumni

Margaret Bloomquist, Research Associate, North Carolina State University

Micaela Colley, Program Director, Organic Seed Alliance
Micaela Colley leads Organic Seed Alliance’s research and education programs focused on organic seed production and organic plant breeding. She is the author of several publications. Micaela frequently teaches and speaks on organic seed topics and collaborates on research projects nationally. Micaela is also pursuing a PhD focused on organic and participatory plant breeding under Dr. Edith Lammerts van Bueren at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Daniel S. Egel, Clinical/Engagement Associate Professor, Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University
Dr. Egel earned his bachelor’s degree from Miami University, a master’s degree from Purdue University, and his doctorate from the University of Florida. Dan's extension programs included: MELCAST, a weather-based disease forecasting system for cantaloupe and watermelon; accurate vegetable disease diagnosis including the Purdue Tomato Doctor, and; the Midwest Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers of which Dan is the lead author. Dan’s extension mission is to encourage the sustainable production of healthy vegetables through the use of integrated pest management and organic systems.

Randy Fulk, Extension Associate, Horticulture Division, North Carolina State University
Randy Fulk specializes in commercial horticulture production, assisting the horticulture specialist with on-farm trials and university farm crop research projects. High tunnel production is a key focus area. Randy also heads up the plasticulture program at NC A&T, providing training to county agents and small farmers in plasticulture best practices.

Amit Jaiswal, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Purdue University. Dr. Jaiswal received his BS in Agriculture from Tribhuvan University in Nepal and his MS and PhD in Agroecology and Plant Health in a joint program with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and The Volcani Center in Israel. His graduate studies focused on deciphering the mechanisms regulating biochar mediated plant growth promotion and plant defense responses. His background is in molecular plant pathology and microbial ecology research. Dr. Jaiswal is currently Postdoctoral research associate in Dr. Hoagland Lab at Purdue University. His current studies are focused on: 1) identify genes and epialleles associated with induced systemic resistance to foliar pathogens by beneficial soil microbes in tomato, and 2) quantifying the impacts of tomato domestication and breeding on rhizosphere processes.

Tesfaye Mengiste, Professor of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University
Research in Dr. Mengiste's lab focuses on molecular mechanisms of plant resistance to important fungal pathogens which reduce crop productivity. Key genetic regulators of plant resistance are identified and their functions studied in the model plant Arabidopsis, and in two crop plants: tomato and sorghum. Through genetic, molecular, and biochemical approaches, they determine how selected components regulate plant immune responses to fungal resistance.

Laurie McKenzie was Research and Education Associate for the Pacific Northwest region and one of OSA's vegetable breeders. She managed OSA's research farm in Chimacum, WA, where she conducted breeding projects, vegetable variety trials, and seed production on a variety of crops. Laurie has authored and co-authored several publications and taught dozens of classes and workshops on seed production and plant breeding.

Kyle Richardville
Kyle Richardville completed his Master’s Degree at Purdue University working in Dr. Lori Hoagland’s lab. His work with TOMI included administering both a field and a greenhouse trial by applying a leaf mold compost to soil used for growing tomato plants. The project goal was to quantify the compost’s ability to increase the soil’s pathogenic suppressive effects. The team also collected Nitrogen levels, yield, and nutritional data from the organic tomatoes. The results add to the knowledge bank soil scientists have regarding soil restoration methods. Kyle now works at Texas A&M University.