The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program is pleased to announce that Dr. Kristy Borrelli has been hired to serve as its new associate director. Borrelli will lead SARE’s National Reporting, Coordination and Communications Office at the University of Maryland effective November 1, 2021.
As SARE’s associate director, Borrelli will manage communication with regional SARE offices, assist with grant administration and reporting, and facilitate interaction with other programs. The associate director also leads SARE’s national communication team and coordinates the evaluation and communication of SARE’s national impact. She succeeds Dr. Kim Kroll, who is retiring after serving as SARE’s associate director since 1996.
Borrelli, a Penn State University Extension educator specializing in agronomy, currently serves as SARE’s Pennsylvania coordinator and previously served on the Northeast SARE Administrative Council. Prior to her time in Pennsylvania, she was an Extension specialist at the University of Idaho, where she collaborated with a multi-state, NIFA-funded project that examined approaches to climate change in the Pacific Northwest.
Borrelli grew up on a family farm in Upstate New York, received her bachelor’s in environmental biology from SUNY ESF, and her master’s and doctorate in soil science from Washington State University. Her main research and extension focus has been on soil organic matter dynamics in grain-based cropping systems, especially for specialty market crops. She has received multiple SARE grants examining the maintenance of agroecosystem functions, farmer engagement in sustainable agriculture research and service provider networking.