Position Title
Topics of Interest: Program Evaluation, Community Development and Agricultural Education.
Growing up on her father's orchid nursery, Caitlin was introduced to the connection of plants and people at quite a young age. Helping her father with his business, Caitlin was able to meet people from all over the world through the flower industry. Being able to hear diverse stories about agriculture through those interactions ignited an interest in travel intertwined with food, culture, and agriculture. At the beginning of high school, taking an agriscience class and joining FFA seemed like the perfect fit for her. FFA created opportunities to be introduced to a variety of agricultural career paths which ultimately led her to pursue her undergraduate degree in Agricultural Education, Extension, and Evaluation at Louisiana State University. At LSU, Caitlin was able to study abroad in Costa Rica and Nicaragua to learn about agriculture around the globe. After her undergrad, Caitlin took a year to work on a Houston organic farm, garden with local elementary programs and work remotely with the USDA in a fellowship developing agriculture education in Uganda. Now she sets off to continue her education at UC Davis as a graduate student in the International Agricultural Development program. Being from south Louisiana, Caitlin has seen a fair share of natural disasters, such as hurricanes, and how they affected her father’s business and farms around her. She became deeply interested in the relationship between natural disasters and crisis with agriculture and hopes to be able to study that relationship more in the future through the IAD program. She plans on continuing to fan the spark of passion she had as a kid learning about global agriculture by pursuing her interests in program evaluation, community development and agricultural education.