Office Location
463 Moore Hall
1575 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
Office Schedule
Sabbatical Fall 2025*
*No new student advising at this time
Grew up in California body-surfing and playing baseball. Graduated from UC Riverside (BS 1990), Humboldt State University (MS 1997), and UC Berkeley (PhD 2002). Joined UW-Madison’s Department of Agronomy (now the Department of Plant & Agroecosystem Sciences) in 2003 as part of a 3-person cluster hire in agroecology.
(see Publications)
We explore how ecosystem management (e.g., crop choice, planting, tillage, inputs, harvest, grazing, & burning) shapes grassland ecosystem structure (e.g., composition, height, configuration, & diversity) and ecosystem function (soil accrual, carbon accumulation, greenhouse gas fluxes, & hydrologic flows) that underpin critical ecosystem services (e.g., food, fiber, fuel, clean water, stable climate, flood mitigation, & biodiversity). We do this research in the context of Grassland 2.0 because agricultural landscapes must be managed in ways that provide for our wants and needs today, while building capacity for future generations to do the same.
AGROECOL 370 Grassland Ecology (3 cr, fall semesters)
AGROECOL 103 An Introduction to the Ecology of Food and Agriculture (3 cr, fall semesters)
We work toward transformative agricultural landscape change by engaging community partners in place-making where we intentionally and collectively connect people, envision novel landscapes, design supply chains, plan enterprises, and institutionalize change for better societal outcomes — a process we call Collaborative Landscape Design in Grassland 2.0.
Director, Grassland 2.0 (2019-present). Transdisciplinary project working to understand and drive agroecological transformation of livestock agriculture in the North Central US. Oversight for all Collaborative Landscape Design elements including initiation and implementation of the Grassland 2.0 Academy.
Co-Director, Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (WICST), University of Wisconsin-Madison (2012-present). Oversight for 34-yr-old long-term agroecological research experiment comparing ecosystem services emerging from 9 cropping systems typical of Wisconsin and the North Central US ranging from continuous corn to restored grazed tallgrass prairie.
Chair, AgroEcology major development committee, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2019-2024). Led team of sociologists, ecologists, entomologists, agronomists, plant scientists, and soil scientists that scoped, developed, and are now implementing a new major in Agroecology (BS).
Co-lead, Sustainability Research, DOE-Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), University of Wisconsin-Madison (2008-2017). Explored socioecological tradeoffs and synergies in the nascent second-generation bioenergy crop production sector.
Chair, Agroecology MS program, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2010-2017). Led relatively new Agroecology major during its early growth phase helping make it one of the most successful graduate degree programs in the College of Agricultural & Life Sciences
CSA News Outstanding ‘Perspective’ Paper (2022) Jackson 2022 Ag Env Letters
National finalist (1 of 3) Frontiers Planet Prize (2023) Jackson 2022 Ag & Env Letters
Campbell-Bascom Professor (2019-2024)