University of Kentucky
David Gonthier
Position: Project Director
Dr. David Gonthier is an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Kentucky. His research seeks to evaluate the viability of agricultural management systems to curtail environmental problems, promote sustainable pest control and biodiversity conservation while maintaining productivity and profitability. He deploys the use ecological theory to better identify and design agroecological practices that promote improved farm multi-functionality. Through collaboration with interdisciplinary teams, he seeks to describe the intersection between ecology and socio-economic forces that form incentives and barriers to the adoption of sustainable practices. His research focuses on fruit and vegetable production in Kentucky and coffee in Honduras. He teaches a number of classes at the University of Kentucky that are related to sustainable agriculture, including: Agroecology, Field Crop Entomology, and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee! (a course all about coffee).
Ricardo Bessin
Position: Co-PI
Ric Bessin is an Extension Professor and Extension Specialist at the University of Kentucky. His extension responsibilities include developing and evaluating IPM decision guidelines and management strategies for specialty and field-crop insect pests. He is currently addressing the management of polyphagous stink bugs in multiple cropping systems, evaluating and implementing alternative management strategies for Oriental fruit moth and codling moth in commercial apple orchards, developing of reduced-risk and organic controls for cucumber beetle, bacterial wilt, squash bug, and yellow vine decline control in melons and squash, manipulation of wild pollinators in cucurbit production systems, and management of the invasive sugarcane aphid on sweet sorghum. He provides educational programs and pest management recommendations to extension educators, agribusiness personnel, commercial producers, and Master Gardeners to better manage pests of field corn, fruits, vegetables, forages, and greenhouses. His goal is to provide balanced, science-based, educational programs addressing sustainable arthropod management and environmental stewardship. Bessin serves as Kentucky IPM coordinator, IR-4 liaison, and PSEP Coordinator for Kentucky.
Position: Project Director Dr. David Gonthier is an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Kentucky. His research seeks to evaluate the viability of agricultural management systems to curtail environmental problems, promote sustainable pest control and biodiversity conservation while maintaining productivity and profitability. He deploys the use ecological theory to better identify and design agroecological practices that promote improved farm multi-functionality. Through collaboration with interdisciplinary teams, he seeks to describe the intersection between ecology and socio-economic forces that form incentives and barriers to the adoption of sustainable practices. His research focuses on fruit and vegetable production in Kentucky and coffee in Honduras. He teaches a number of classes at the University of Kentucky that are related to sustainable agriculture, including: Agroecology, Field Crop Entomology, and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee! (a course all about coffee).
Mark Williams
Position: Co-PI
Dr. Williams has been a faculty member in the Department of Horticulture at the University of Kentucky since 2001 and is currently the Chair of the department. His research interests are in sustainable agriculture, with a particular focus on evaluating and developing sustainable organic horticulture production systems. Dr. Williams has conducted a range of experiments in organic farming, from optimizing the production of direct-marketed vegetables to developing control options for specific pest problems in cucurbits, peppers, tomatoes and apples. In addition to research, Dr. Williams is committed to student learning and led the development of the UK Sustainable Agriculture undergraduate program. As part of these efforts he established the 30-acre UK Organic Farming Unit, which houses a community supported agriculture (CSA) program and associated student apprenticeship. The Organic Farming Unit is used in a variety of extension and farmer training programs across all topic areas associated with diversified vegetable production.
Katie Fiske
Position: PhD Student >> Post Doc/Project Coordinator
Katie Fiske is a PhD student and lab technician in Dr. Gonthier’s lab at the University of Kentucky in the Entomology Department. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Agriculture from UK in 2014. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, she was a staff member of the UK Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program where she gained valuable experience ranging from greenhouse seeding, transplanting, cultivation, harvest and post-harvest handling, equipment operation, and customer interaction. A brief stint in Wisconsin after graduation on an organic dairy farm taught her that milking cows was not something she wanted to do in the future, but was vital in teaching her about canning, raising poultry and learning what it’s like to live on a “real” family farm. Back in Kentucky, she picked up where she left off with the UK CSA and continued there until 2019 where she joined Dr. Gonthier’s lab as a graduate student. Katie’s past research focused on the disease, insect, pollination, and weed management of cucurbit crops within the mesotunnel system. Questions of profitability about the mesotunnel system lead her to studying how the mesotunnel systems can be used on multiple crops in a single growing season, comparing different types of netting and row cover to organic and conventional pesticides. Understanding the best types of row covers to use in the mesotunnel system and with which crops to use them on will help farmers maximize their profits. Katie is on schedule to finish her PhD in spring 2024, where she will stay on as a post-doc in Dr. Gonthier’s lab as the project coordinator and lab technician.
Alexis (Lexi) Gauger
Position: PhD student
Lexi Gauger (she/her) is a current PhD student in the Gonthier Lab and recent graduate of the University of Kentucky. She grew up on a small family farm outside Cincinnati, OH, where she learned to love the natural world and the process of growing food. She completed her undergraduate work at the University of Kentucky, where she earned a BSc in Sustainable Agriculture and a Bsc in Entomology in 2022. During her undergraduate years, she completed a USDA REEU internship studying honey bees in the Tarpy Lab at North Carolina State University, which sparked her interest in insects, and an NSF REU internship studying black soldier flies in the Aloykhin Lab at the University of Maine, which further confirmed that she wanted to study entomology. She also was a fellow at the interdisciplinary Gaines Center for the Humanities, where she completed a thesis merging ethics and sustainable agriculture. She began working as an undergraduate researcher with the Gonthier Lab in 2021. After earning her undergraduate degrees she continued working in the Gonthier Lab, this time as a PhD student. Her research examines the relationships between bee health and crop yield in diversified agroecosystems. She continues to think and work interdisciplinarily as a Food Systems Fellow at the University of Kentucky’s The Food Connection. Lexi’s work on this project will address best practices to achieve effective pollination and bee community health in mesotunnel systems.
Iowa State
Ajay Nair
Position: Co-PI
Dr. Ajay Nair is an Associate Professor working in the area of Sustainable Vegetable Production in the Department of Horticulture at Iowa State University. The focus of his research, extension, and education program is on cover cropping, conservation tillage, nutrient management, soil amendments and health, and season extension strategies in vegetable production. He works closely with commercial vegetable growers, extension staff, industry representatives and stakeholders to meet the rising demand of locally grown produce and enhance the profitability and sustainability of vegetable production systems.
Katherine Dentzman
Position: Co-PI
Dr. Katherine Dentzman earned her B.A. as a double major in Environmental Science and Sociology at Central Michigan University and both her M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology with a specialization in Ecological Food and Farming Systems at Michigan State University.
After graduation she held multiple USDA-funded postdoctoral research associate positions at both Washington State University and University of Idaho, followed by a position with the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture as a Social Science Program Specialist.
Dr. Dentzman specializes in transdisciplinary agri-food research at the intersection of environmental and social sustainability. Using mixed methods designs and a grounding in critical theory, she has contributed a unique sociological perspective to nearly a dozen separate research teams.
She is broadly interested in 'unbelonging' and community in agri-food systems, particularly focusing on the implications for conjoint dimensions of sustainability. Her work has advanced an understanding of the human dimensions of herbicide resistance issues in agriculture, for which she has numerous publications, invited presentations, grant funding, and committee positions. She has also applied theories of good farming, place attachment, and intersectionality to study the pathways and barriers to success in agriculture faced by women and LGBTQ+ farmers.
Joe Hollis
Position: PhD Student/Graduate Research Assistant
Joe Hollis is a PhD student in Rural Sociology and Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. He is primarily interested in agricultural governance and policy issues, particularly in areas such as pest management, natural resource management, and precision agriculture. He is also interested in the development of resilience capacity in rural communities, and the attitudes and beliefs of those living within them.
Joe completed an MSc in Food Security at the University of Edinburgh and holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of London. His interest in all things’ food and agriculture stems from previous research projects with producers, NGOs, and working as a chef in several busy kitchens.
Akshaya Thinakaran
Position: Master’s student
Smriti Chaudhary
Position: Master’s Student
