Krista Jacobsen, PhD

Associate Professor, UK Department of Horticulture

Dr. Jacobsen is an agroecologist by training, with research interests in soil health, plant productivity, and ecosystem services in sustainable agricultural systems.  Research in our group is often interdisciplinary, and often embedded in a local food systems context. Current research areas include soil process-related work in high tunnels, integration of cover crops in tunnels, and supporting year-round high tunnel production regions in the Mid-South. Our group primarily works in organic farming systems, and mostly with vegetables, but we occasionally dabble in wheat, flowers, and fruits. For a description of our research projects, see the Research page.

Krista is the Faculty Chair of The Food Connection, a local food systems institute at the University of Kentucky. Through this work, she has the privilege of working with an incredible group of food systems scholars, chefs, and students.

Krista also directs the University of Kentucky Sustainable Agriculture and Community Food Systems Undergraduate program. If you have questions about the SAG program, feel free to reach out!

Contact Information:  krista.jacobsen@uky.edu

Current Graduate Students

Chelsea Maupin

Chelsea is a Master’s student in Integrated Plant and Soils Sciences at the University of Kentucky. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Food and Farming Systems with a minor in Horticulture and International Studies at Purdue University. She now studies crop growth models and microclimate data to enhance the understanding of growth limitations in central Kentucky in order to develop cropping systems planning tools for lettuce and greens producers.

Contact Information: c.maup@uky.edu

Sapana Pandey

Sapana is a Master’s student in Integrated Plant and Soils Sciences at the University of Kentucky. She completed her Bachelor’s degree at Prithu Technical College of Agriculture and Animal Sciences. She is currently studying potassium application rates and soil nutrient interactions to better understand ripening disorders in Kentucky.

Contact Information: sapana.pandey@uky.edu

Staff

Ryan Lark

Ryan currently serves as the Jacobsen Lab research analyst. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a B.S. in Environmental & Sustainability Studies, Biology, and Animal Sciences and a Graduate Certificate in Digital Mapping. Ryan first began working with the Jacobsen Lab in May 2018 as an assistant and moved to research analyst in September 2020. His interests include sustainability and water usage in agriculture.

Contact Information: ryan_lark@uky.edu

Kara Bracken

Kara is a student intern from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in the Math Science Technology Center (MSTC) program. She is currently developing temperature-based crop growth models which will lay the groundwork for a crop planning tool for farmers.

Undergraduate Student Workers

Brianna Stanley

Brianna is a graduate from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, Environmental Communication and Global Sustainable Food Systems in 2020. She was an assistant in the Jacobsen Lab from June to December 2020.

Contact Information: brianna.stanley@uky.edu

Savannah McGuire

Savannah is a graduate from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Agriculture. She was an assistant in the Jacobsen lab from 2015 -2017. She is interested in vegetable production and enjoys field work and being outdoors.

Contact Information: sjmc233@g.uky.edu

Ellen Green

Ellen is a graduate from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor's degree in sustainable agriculture and in environmental studies. She was an assistant in the Jacobsen lab from 2016-2017.  Her research interests include community food systems and environmental ethics.  Ellen plans to continue her research and hopes to study sustainable agriculture in graduate school. 

Contact information: evgr223@g.uky.edu

David Smith

David is a graduate of Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky.  As a student, David conducted undergraduate research in the Jacobsen Lab exploring differences between high tunnel and field soils around the state.  David is an avid runner and outdoors man, with broad interests in biology, sustainability, and environmental sciences.  

Michael Hurak

Visiting International Students

Jacques Fils Pierre

Jacques Fils Pierre is a Master´s student at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ) in Brazil.  He recieved his Bachelor's degree in 2014 from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and received a specialization in environmental management in 2016 from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.  He is currently working with Doctor Nedda G.R. Mizuguchi in creating a profile of the Family farmers in the Rural Areas of Haiti under the leadership of the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro. He is interested in researching sustainable agricultural practices such as organic vegetable crop production and adequate technologies for small scale production.

During the summer for 2017, he worked as a professional intern with Dr. Jacobsen and the University of Kentucky Organic Farming Unit. As a result, he now has goals to attend a PhD program in sustainable agriculture.

Contact Information: jacquesfilspierre@gmail. com

Dea Hagania Laia

Dea participated in an internship at the University of Kentucky under the guidance of Dr. Jacobsen during the summer of 2017. She is from Indonesia and is currently a student at Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Central Java and plans to graduate in June of 2018 with a bachelor's degree in agricultural economics. She is a member of the International Association of Students in Agriculture and Related Sciences, an organization for students wanting to advance agriculture in Indonesia. Dea plans to become an agricultural professor, businesswoman, and wants to inspire young people to play a role in agriculture since it is the backbone of the world. She hopes to continue her master's at the University of Kentucky. 

Contact information: deahagania7@gmail.com

Sunda Nurfiani

Sunda is student at the University of Sebelas Maret, Indonesia and is studying in Agribussiness. In the summer for 2017, Sunda was an intern with the Jacobsen Lab in order to develop skills for her future career and gain an understanding of the United States and its agricultural systems. She is the Co Assistant of Practicum Agroclimatology, Agricultural Extension, Statistic, Management of Marketing, Economic Resources of Agriculture and Trainer of Training Achievement Motivation Trainer (TOT AMT), and also a participant in Appreciation Award for Outstanding Students of Agribusiness 2017. Upon graduation, she wants to continue her study in USA and then return to Indonesia where she will apply her knowledge to build an agriculture association to help farmers in Indonesia.

Contact information: sunda_nurfiani@yahoo.com

Graduate Student Alumni

Ammar Al Zubade

Ammar is a PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Krista Jacobsen in the Department of Horticulture at the University of Kentucky.  He completed his Bachelor’s degree in 2001 and Master’s degree in 2009 from the College of Agriculture, at the University of Baghdad.  While at the University of Baghdad, Ammar studied small grain crop production. He now studies nitrogen management on grain protein content and the baking characteristic for bread wheat in Kentucky along with exploring the nitrogen application rate for organic wheat production in relation with grain protein content and its yield component. 

Contact Information: ammar.alzubade@uky.edu 

Debendra Shrestha

Debendra Shrestha successfully defended his thesis entitled Characterizing Nitrogen Loss and Greenhouse Gas Flux Across an Intensification Gradient in Diversified Vegetable Systems in Fall 2019. He is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Debendra completed his Bachelor's degree in 2009 and Master's degree in Horticulture in 2011 from Tribhuwan University, Nepal.  He then worked as an Agriculture Development officer for the government of Nepal at the Department of Agriculture.  He is interested in nutrient cycling, organic vegetable production, highland organic coffee production and utilizing organic waste as a source of plant nutrients. 

Alex Hessler

Alex Hessler successfully defended his thesis entitled Reduced Tillage and Living Mulches in Organic Production Systems in Fall 2013. He is currently employed as the Sustainable Food Systems Director at Virginia Tech University.

Alex earned a B.S. in Resource Conservation from the University of Montana, Missoula.  His hometown is Chapel Hill, North Carolina, perfectly situated halfway between the outer banks and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Seasonal jobs in the outdoors have been excellent excuses for him to explore the natural history and management of forests and agricultural landscapes.  Alex has worked as an intern at an outdoor survival skills school for children in New Jersey, a wildland firefighter in Idaho, and a forest research technician in Montana.  His interest in sustainable agriculture grew from an internship at N.C. State University’s Center for Environmental Farming Systems, and by working on the student-run farm at the University of Montana.  The year prior to his arrival at UK was spent on an organic vegetable farm in western North Carolina. He is interested in optimizing weed management strategies and conservation tillage practices for organic vegetable production.  He believes that cover crops, prudent cultivation, creative rotations, and an adaptable approach towards tillage are the foundation of sustainable farming systems.  Alex's graduate research with Dr. Krista Jacobsen was focused on the influence of conservation tillage and inter-seeded cover crops, or “living mulches,” on nitrogen mineralization, weed community composition, and soil aggregate stability in organic bell pepper production.  Alex is grateful to have worked beside the students and faculty of UK’s student run organic CSA, and hope to replicate this model for hands-on learning as an educator in the future. 

Kavita Mizin

Kavita Mizin successfully defended her thesis in Spring 2014. She is currently employed at the USDA-APHIS Headquarters in Beltsville, MD.

Kavita began her career in Finance after graduating from McGill University with a Bachelor’s in Commerce in 2009.  However, after feeling a pull to get back to her roots, Kavita left her job and took an Agroforestry and Tropical Horticulture internship at the Jama Coaque Reserva in coastal Ecuador.  After returning to the United States in 2011, Kavita worked on a number of certified organic diversified vegetable and livestock operations throughout the North East United States, including her own family business in Pennsylvania, Plant Magic Perennials.  Kavita’s research interests are focused on the downstream effects of agricultural systems, primarily human health and nutrition. 

Vicky Anderson

Vicky Anderson successfully defended her thesis entitled Nitrogen Cycling, Plant Growth and Production of Secondary Compounds of Calendula officials in Organic Production Systems in Spring 2013.  Vicky is currently pursuing a PhD in natural products chemistry at the University of Oklahoma. 

Vicky is from Silver Spring Maryland.  She graduated from Hood College in 2007, double majoring in chemistry and archaeology.  After graduating she worked for several years as a science assistant in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources at the National Science Foundation (EHR-NSF).  Vicky is pursuing a masters degree in plant a soil science in the horticulture department.  Her research is focusing in part on organic nutrition in a greenhouse setting, using medicinal herb and ornamental flower Calendula officinalis as a model species.  The other aspect of her research examines the effects of nutrition on the medical properties of Calendula officinalis.   

Rebecca Shelton

Rebecca Shelton successfully defended her MS thesis, Investigating nitrogen dynamics and loss in conventionally and organically managed conservation agriculture systems with wheat and hairy vetch cover crops, in 2015.  She is currently pursuing a PhD in Sustainability at Arizona State University.

Rebecca completed her undergraduate work at Furman University and received her B.S. in Earth and Environmental Science with a biology concentration.  Originally from Kentucky, she returned to UK in order to pursue a masters degree in July 2013.

Her research interests lie within the realm of agroecology and natural resource management.  Specifically, she is interested in agriculture’s impact on climate and the environment, small-scale farm efficiency, and quantification of ecosystem services.  She is working with both the McCulley lab and the Jacobsen lab to study plant available nitrogen produced by leguminous cover crops and trace gas emissions in a reduced till, cover cropped system. 

staff Alumni

Jennifer Taylor

Jennifer served as the Jacobsen Lab research analyst. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a bachelor's in environmental studies and in geography. She has worked with the Jacobsen Lab since May 2016. Her research interests include the impact of conservation spaces on human populations as well as the impact of environmental education on marginalized youth. Jennifer is looking to continue her research and intends to pursue a master's degree in public health.

Contact Information: jenniferdai14@gmail.com

Alexandra Williams

Alex served as the research analyst and is a trained weed scientist for the control of vegetation on golf courses, home lawns, landscapes, and plant nurseries.  She received her PhD in Crop Science from the University of Kentucky where she researched Poa annua biotypes on golf course putting greens and their differential responses to commonly used herbicides and plant growth regulators.  Alex completed her MS in Horticulture from the University of Georgia. Currently, she is an environmental fate scientist at Syngenta. 

Contact Information: alexandra.p.williams@gmail.com

Brett Wolff

Brett managed the daily activities of the Jacobsen Lab from September 2012 until May 2015.  He now works in the Cooperative Extension Service as a Senior Extension Associate with the Center for Crop Diversification and Kentucky SARE Program. 

Contact Information: brett.wolff@uky.edu

Aaron Stancombe

Aaron served as the High Tunnel Manager for the Jacobsen Lab from January 2013 until April 2015.  He is now the co-owner and operator of Bellaire Blooms- a cut flower business specializing in local, sustainably grown cut flowers.  You can read more about their farm and their flower CSA here!