Associate Professor
University of Minnesota
454 Alderman Hall
Department of Horticultural Science
St. Paul, MN 55108
(w) (651) 625-8597
About
Julie is a soil scientist and faculty in the Department of Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota (UMN). She holds an M.S. in Soil Science and Ph.D. in Agronomy and Plant Genetics from the University of Minnesota, and was an NSF Post-doctoral Fellow at Cornell University and then Soil Science faculty at North Carolina State University prior to returning to Minnesota in 2014. Her research explores plant-soil-microbe relationships that can be harnessed to enhance soil fertility in organic and agroecological farming systems. In particular, she is fascinated by the process of biological nitrogen fixation in legume cover crops to provide nitrogen to crops and help improve soil health. She is an affiliated faculty member of the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change, and the Institute on the Environment (IonE) at UMN. Julie also has a passion for progressive teaching and learning in sustainable agriculture. Central to her teaching-toolbox are pedagogical strategies that help students collectively address public needs while developing disciplinary competency and skills. She teaches the capstone course for the UMN undergraduate Food Systems major, emphasizing student learning through community-engaged experiences with Twin Cities food and farm advocacy organizations, as well as an introductory organic management course.
Projects
| GNC23-379 | Assessing High Tunnel Soil Health Under Prolonged Cover Cropping Methods |
| GNC20-300 | Maximizing Nitrogen Fixation in Cold-Hardy Hairy Vetch |
| GNC20-310 | Smart Farming with Microbes: Managing Summer Cover Crops to Cultivate Beneficial Soil Communities |
| YENC19-137 | Educating urban youth via decision cases and curriculum on hoop house vegetable production |
| LNC19-423 | Summer Cover Crop System Management: New options for Upper Midwest vegetable producers |
| GNC16-232 | Cover Crop Cold Tolerance for High Tunnels |
| ENC15-145 | Soil Health and Nutrient Management Training for Immigrant and Minority Farming Communities |
| GNC14-187 | Improving Soil Health and Microbial Activity through Zone Tillage and Innovative Cover Cropping Strategies |
| LNC14-364 | Bringing the Benefits of Legume Cover Crops to Northern Midwest Climates |
| LS10-227 | Lighting up the black box: Improving legume performance on organic farms by optimizing microbially-mediated plant and soil nitrogen cycling processes. |