Ria was born and raised in Northern California and moved to Davis for her undergraduate degree in animal biology. After graduation, Ria spent several years touring the world as a lindy hop and blues dance instructor before going back to her roots in biology, working for Chuck Ingels, the Sacramento county farm advisor for fruit tree and vine crops as well as environmental horticulture. Her time working on research projects in soil science, fertility, pest management, and irrigation for small and local growers helped develop her passion for extension work and a desire to understand how economics affects sustainable agricultural management decisions. Ria continues to work in extension for the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) where she coordinates the Pest Management Guidelines, UC’s official guidelines for monitoring and managing pests in over 50 different California crops.

Ria will be entering the IAD program in fall 2018 with a specialization in agricultural and resource economics. Her research interests are fairly broad, but she hopes to focus on decision support tools that help growers and farmers implement environmentally sustainable and economically sound management practices. After graduating, Ria would like to continue to work at the intersection of extension, research, and policy. When not working or studying, you can find Ria on the dance floor, reading, cooking, spending time with her furry, scaly, and feathery pets, or in her yard trying to win the battle against nature in her home orchard.

Topics of interest: Agricultural decision support tools, economics and risk management for sustainable agriculture, agricultural extension and policy, pest management, soil fertility and plant nutrition, ecoinformatics/agroinformatics, new markets for ethnobotanicals.