While Emily Usher-DeaKyne grew up in a suburb of Chicago, the cityscape didn’t appeal to her as much as the botanical side of life did. After earning her undergraduate degree in botany and plant biology at Ohio University, she headed out West to work with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) where she experienced her first foray into understanding biophysical processes at a landscape scale while also taking into account the social and human dynamics of natural resource management. Inspired by her stint with BLM, Emily returned to school, earning a master’s degree in natural resources management and policy at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Today, she’s the project manager for the Diverse Corn Belt project, which began in 2021 and is led by Purdue University. The goal of the project is to diversify Midwestern agriculture beyond corn and soybeans in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa to reverse long-established trends for future proofing American farming.

We recently spoke with Emily about why farmers need transformative change, what it takes to manage a diverse project and advice for taking a non-traditional career path.

Geswein Farm & Land (GFL): How did you get involved with the Diverse Corn Belt?

Emily Usher-DeaKyne (EUD): I’ve always thought of myself as living my professional life at the intersection of research practitioners, practitioner-based information and policy. After earning my master’s, I started working at Purdue in 2017 with Dr. Linda Prokopy (the PI or the lead of the Diverse Corn Belt Project) and the first half of my career here at Purdue was really focused on that farmer decision-making. Do you plant cover crops? Why or why not? How is your experience? What are some of your challenges? What would make cover crops easier to adopt? Talking a lot about different conservation practices and the environmental and economic impacts of those.

We were asking about all of these practices, while also asking whether these practices were having an impact on the landscape, providing more resources and stability for farmers and addressing some of our environmental challenges. And I think the overarching answer to that was no. So that was how the Diverse Corn Belt project came to be. Instead of thinking about these small, incremental, practice-based changes, we’re trying to think about larger scale transformative change. And to accomplish that transformative change, we’re going to need to change the systems of agriculture that we are using.

GFL: As project manager for the Diverse Corn Belt, what do you do in your current role?

EUD: I do a little bit of everything. I’m the only person of the 40 or so folks who is full-time at the Diverse Corn Belt. We have about eight teams, and it’s my job to keep track of those teams in terms of their deliverables, in terms their budgets, but also in terms of how the information coming out of each of these sub-teams can weave itself into a larger picture of what the Diverse Corn Belt could be. So, we have our social scientists who are talking with farmers and doing interviews and focus groups, but we also have biophysical folks who are looking at soil and water and are looking at groundwater and insects and being able to connect the biophysical work that’s happening to the social work. I connect those dots to try to really enable that transdisciplinary work that’s important for something like changing agricultural systems.

GFL: With so many partners – and about 40 researchers involved with the project – you must need to wear a lot of different hats…can you walk me through a typical day?

EUD: I have a hybrid schedule. I work sometimes at home. I live in Lafayette and I am on campus about three days a week so I do a lot of Zoom meetings, but each Zoom meeting is with different people who are hyper focused on their specific tasks. I have to have a 10,000-foot view of everything that’s going on in the project so I can connect the people who need to be connected and sort of cross-pollinate between the teams. For example, if our modeling team is interested in understanding different possible rotations that are economically and agronomically viable because they’re going to model it out, I coordinate with the infield team so they can gain the information they need.

GFL: What’s the most interesting aspect of your job?

EUD: I like talking to farmers. You can see their eyes light up when you understand their philosophy because farming isn’t just getting up and getting in the tractor and doing it. There’s philosophy involved, and there’s land ethic and there’s a community values ethic and there’s a family element to it. Understanding how to talk to all of these people who dedicate their lives to this, and sort of picking their brains about their philosophy and how and why they do what they do. I love that part of it. I also love the community vitality part of the Diverse Corn Belt Project. It’s inspiring to hear about what people want to see and brainstorming ideas of how we can get there.

GFL: What types of challenges do you run into?

EUD: Communication is always hard. We have maybe 30 professors on the team. We work with a lot of grad students. We work with a lot of staff. We work with a lot of other organizations. And I think that something that every project manager has to figure out is how to understand your team. Like how can I be the best manager because I also have no direct reports. I manage primarily through social capital. I have to understand what these people need from me and from others and be able to provide that. I also have to be able to flip back and forth between topics. Sometimes I’ll be talking to somebody working on a landscape model who’s thinking about an entire like eight county region and how local foods engage with it, and then have to switch gears within the next couple of minutes to talk about on-farm research and how nutrients move through extended rotations. But it’s great. It keeps me on my toes and it keeps me engaged.

GFL: What type of professional skills are necessary for your position?

EUD: I think being able to have that 10,000-foot perspective is valuable and being able to switch between smaller scale and larger scale. You have to be a good listener and be able to identify where the connection needs to happen. So, there’s like a Rolodex in my brain of all of the things going on. Being able to understand your team and knowing the unique needs of each of those folks so I can tailor my interaction with people based on how they respond best.

GFL: Your pathway into the agricultural field was non-traditional and you seem to really enjoy what you do. What advice would you give someone who may want to pursue a career in agriculture who also may be coming from a non-traditional background?

EUD: Being a lifetime learner is a really important part of it, and finding new things that excites you are really important, too. Be open to new experiences. I really didn’t know anything about agriculture when I started working here, and I learned a lot of it on the job. And I think that coming to a space with curiosity and intention, I think people recognize that and see that value.  Diversity in the workspace and diversity in terms of where you’re from, what your life experiences are, what you want to be is really valuable and it makes your work more robust and gives you a good perspective.

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