J. Gordon Arbuckle

J. Arbuckle is professor and extension rural sociologist at Iowa State University. His research and extension efforts focus on improving the environmental and social performance of agricultural systems. His primary areas of interest are drivers of farmer and agricultural stakeholder action related to soil and water quality. He is director of the Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll, an annual survey of Iowa farmers, and Chair of the ISU Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture.

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Omar de Kok-Mercado

Omar de Kok-Mercado is the project coordinator for the Science-based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips (STRIPS) and the Consortium for Cultivating Human and Naturally reGenerative Enterprises (C-CHANGE) at Iowa State University. In his role, he coordinates transdisciplinary research and extension activities on prairie strips and regenerative agriculture communicating their impacts on farm livelihoods, soil, water, and wildlife conservation. Omar holds a BS in Agronomy and an MS in Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry, both from Iowa State University. Most recently, Omar led the STRIPS team in writing a national environmental policy for the Conservation Reserve Program, a federal cost-share program for farmers and landowners.

William Beck

Billy Beck is the Extension Forestry Specialist (State Specialist) with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, and is responsible for forestry education and extension programming across all of Iowa’s 99 counties. He also holds research and teaching appointments in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management. His research and extension programming focus heavily on the impacts that trees, forests, and forest / riparian management have on water quality and flood mitigation within Midwestern watersheds. Billy has been with ISUEO since 2019. He holds degrees from Michigan State University (B.S., Forestry), Southern Illinois University (M.S., Forest Hydrology), and Iowa State University (Ph.D., Environmental Science). Billy lives south of Nevada, IA, with his wife, two cats, and one motorcycle.

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Emily Zimmerman

Emily Zimmerman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management and Global Resource Systems in the Department of Horticulture. Emily’s research interests focus on understanding the relationship between land use and ecosystem services in working landscapes. Recently, Emily’s work has focused primarily on evaluating placement, costs, and environmental outcomes associated with spatially targeted best management practices in agricultural landscapes. In addition to her research, Emily teaches several courses, including Natural Resource Policy, and has co-led study abroad and travel courses on four continents. Emily has been in her current role since August 2019. She holds a BS in Biology and Global Resource Systems from Iowa State University, a MS in Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Science from Iowa State University.

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John Tyndall

John Tyndall is an associate professor of natural resource economics at Iowa State University where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in resource economics, agroecosystem analysis, and forest management as part of the Department of Natural Resource Ecology & Management and the Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture. John’s research and that of the students in his lab weaves economic and social analysis into trans-disciplinary work examining the capacity of agriculturally dominated landscapes to produce broader arrays of ecosystem and hydrologic services while maintaining economic viability at field, farm, and regional scales. Working with talented students and colleagues, John’s research has been expanding into integrated financial and spatial modeling so as to create innovative decision support tools for conservation planners and farmers alike. John lives in Ames, Iowa with his wife and two kids.

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Kevin Roe

Kevin Roe is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Natural Resource Ecology and Management and Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at Iowa State University. His research centers around the evolution and conservation genetics of freshwater organisms and has included projects on freshwater mussels, fishes, shrimps, and snails. Through these projects his lab has provided state and federal agencies with critical information to inform the conservation and management of endangered species. Kevin has BS and MS degrees in Zoology from the University of Georgia, and a PhD in Biology from the University of Alabama. Kevin has been a resident of Iowa since 2005 and lives in Ames. 

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