The University of Vermont has appointed Polly Ericksen as the inaugural director of the Food Systems Research Center, a collaborative partnership between UVM and the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. An internationally known expert in agricultural development and sustainability, Ericksen will oversee operations and provide critical leadership as the center grows as a hub for local and regional food systems research across the Northeast.
For more than two decades, Ericksen has worked at the nexus of research and development relating to agriculture, food systems and climate change across Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. She joins UVM after having spent the past nine years as the program leader for sustainable livestock systems with the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya.
“Dr. Ericksen’s deep experience and know-how will position UVM’s Food Systems Research Center to not only have significant local impact but to also become a transformative center for the country,” said Leslie Parise, dean of the UVM College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which serves as the campus home for the center.
Ericksen has been recognized as an early pioneer in the field of food systems research and is a seminal scholar using interdisciplinary approaches to solve complex food systems issues in the context of global environmental change. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and holds a master's degree in economics and a doctorate in soil science from the University of Wisconsin.
The Food Systems Research Center was established in 2019 with funding secured by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy to support a research center focused on local and regional food systems in Vermont and the Northeast. In May, UVM’s board of trustees approved a major renovation of the Joseph L Hills Agricultural Science Building on the UVM campus, the future home of the center.