Staff & Board of Directors | The Dry Farming Institute

We are a group of farmers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and educators in the Pacific Northwest who are deeply motivated to find solutions to growing food in a hotter, drier climate. We have multiple decades of experience in sustainable agriculture research and small-scale farming. We believe farmers are the ultimate knowledge-keepers and innovators that keep our food system strong and resilient.

DFI Staff

Amy Garrett

DFI Director

Amy has more than 25 years of experience in the horticulture industry ranging from landscape design, installation and maintenance to organic farming, research, and education. Drought mitigation tools and strategies for growing with little or no irrigation have become a focus in her work in recent years. She worked with OSU Extension Small Farms Program in the Southern Willamette Valley 2011-2022, where she initiated the OSU Dry Farming Project in 2014, the Dry Farming Collaborative in 2016, and founded the Dry Farming Institute in 2019. She is excited to help build capacity for DFI and maintain a work culture that emphasizes transparency, communication, innovation, and collaboration.

DFI Board of Directors

Lucas Nebert

President

Lucas Nebert, PhD, is a sustainable agriculture researcher who specializes in soil health (M.S. Wageningen University, Netherlands) and plant and soil microbial ecology (Ph.D. University of Oregon Environmental Studies), and most recently dry farming. He has worked with the Dry Farming Collaborative since 2017, as a hobby farmer, field technician, data analyst and the DFI Resilient Seed Stewardship Program coordinator. He is passionate about dry farming with staple crops, such as corn, beans and squash, and his latest work focuses on breeding culinary field corn varieties to thrive in the Pacific Northwest under dry farmed conditions.

Eliza Mason

Secretary

Eliza farms in Monroe, Oregon at Lilliputopia, which she founded in 2017 and is named after the little people in Gulliver’s Travels. Lilliputopia was created to serve as a model for sustainability and community, and specializes in dry-farmed fruits and vegetables. Eliza holds a BS in molecular biology, a doctorate in microbiology and works as a contract editor of scientific manuscripts. She currently serves as a director on the board of the Benton County Soil and Water Conservation District. She hunts for wild mushrooms in her free time.

John Miedema

Board Member

John Miedema is an internationally recognized leader, researcher, and developer of biochar technology. He is founder and CEO at BioLogical Carbon, LLC (BLC) in Philomath Oregon. BLC’s mission is determining pathways for underutilized waste streams to become valued resources. BLC’s primary focus is applied research and production of high-quality biochar products for the remediation of environmental toxins and building soil fertility. These “designer” chars are being used in research at a number of universities, government and private industrial and agricultural projects. In addition to long stints as a fisherman in Alaska and an electrical contractor, John has spent over two decades studying and designing sustainable energy systems integrated with resource management, food production and environmental remediation.

Kristin Trippe

Treasurer

Kristin Trippe is a Research Soil Microbiologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Corvallis, OR at the Forage Seed and Cereal Research Unit. Dr. Trippe earned her BS and PhD degrees at Oregon State University in Botany with a strong emphasis on microbiology and environmental engineering. Her program focuses mainly on developing and evaluating practices for sustainable farming. Dr. Trippe is active in the Soil Science Society of America the US Biochar Initiative and leading the ARS CharNET group. Outside of science, you can find her playing in soil, finding mushrooms, and listening and making music.

Cathy McQueeney

Board Member

Cathy McQueeney is an Education and Outreach Specialist with the Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District in Oregon. She has been involved with organizing Small Farms School, is on the board for Oregon Conservation Education and Assistance Network, and has been on the steering committee for the Oregon Farm to School and School Garden Network (OFSSGN). She (has been an educator in academia for 20 years and) has a small farm in Colton, OR. where she has been experimenting with dry farming for four years.

**2023 DFI Board & Staff Retreat** at Clackamas SWCD: Left to right – Ashley, Kristen, Matt, Lucas, Cathy, John, Amy.
Eliza and Melissa (not pictured here)

Thank you to our former board members, Matt Delaney and Ron Oberg and former Co-Director, Ashley Rood!