Project Coordinators

Harold van Es

Harold van Es

Professor, Co-PI New York Soil Health

Phone: 607-255-5629
Email: hmv1@cornell.edu

Harold van Es is a Professor of Soil and Water Management with extension, research and teaching duties. He works on approaches to precision soil management, with a current emphasis on a holistic soil health management framework. Harold leads research in several long-term (20+ years) tillage experiments to evaluate the long-term impact of tillage practices and cover crops on soil health and water quality (among other research projects).

Matt Ryan

Matt Ryan

Assoc. Professor, Co-PI New York Soil Health

Phone: 607-255-4964
Email: mrr232@cornell.edu
Website

Matthew Ryan is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Cropping Systems in the Section of Soil and Crop Sciences at Cornell University. He works with farmers, students, and other scientists to evaluate cropping system performance in terms of crop yield, profitability, environmental impact, and resilience.

David W. Wolfe

David W. Wolfe

Emeritus Professor, Co-PI New York Soil Health

Phone: (607) 255-7888
Email: dww5@cornell.edu

David Wolfe is Emeritus Professor of Plant and Soil Ecology in the School of Integrative Plant Science (Horticulture Section) at Cornell University. Primary research interests and expertise include soil and water conservation and management; plant stress physiology; and new tools for climate change adaptation and mitigation for managed and natural ecosystems.

Joseph Amsili

Joseph Amsili

Extension Associate and Program Coordinator

Email: jpa28@cornell.edu

Joseph Amsili is an extension associate and program coordinator with the Cornell Soil Health Program and New York Soil Health Initiative. He works to coordinate and support soil health extension activities across New York State, including the Soil Health and Climate Resiliency Field Day series and the NY Soil Health Specialist Training Series. In 2020, Joseph and others completed the Characterization of Soil Health in NYS Reports, and is working on efforts to conduct more regional analyses. He is currently working on assessing soil organic carbon sequestration rates at four long-term tillage and cropping systems experiments across New York State.

Focus areas: field crops, dairy, pasture, vegetables, cover crops

Debbie Aller

Debbie Aller

Extension Associate and Program Coordinator

Email: da352@cornell.edu

Debbie Aller is an extension associate and program coordinator with the New York Soil Health initiative. She  conducts and coordinates extension and applied research activities across NYS that support and improve soil health. She brings her expertise working with vegetable, fruit, and nursery growers to implement sustainable soil management practices and has an in-depth research background in biochar and other organic amendments.

Focus areas: orchards/vineyards, urban ag, vegetables/horticulture crops, biochar/soil amendments

Michael Glos

Michael Glos

Email: mag22@cornell.edu

Michael Glos works on New York Soil Health extension and applied research activities across NYS that support and improve soil health. He brings his expertise of 20+ years of applied sustainable agricultural research and outreach along with knowledge gained from operating a diverse certified organic farm since 1997.

Focus areas: organic farming, vegetable/horticulture crops, plant breeding

Kristen Loria

Kristen Loria

Extension Support Specialist

Email: kal52@cornell.edu

Kristen Loria is an extension support specialist in the Sustainable Cropping Systems Lab at Cornell University. She helps lead extension efforts for the lab, which include coordinating farmer advisory groups, on-farm and farmer-led research, as well as outreach events such as workshops and field days. She also helps manage and execute field experiments related to the lab’s work on regional dry bean production and organic no-till systems.

Focus areas: pulse crops, agronomics of diversified field cropping systems, open-source farm technologies and participatory research methodologies

Bob Schindelbeck

Bob Schindelbeck

Director of the Cornell Soil Health Laboratory

Phone: 607-227-6055
Email: rrs3@cornell.edu

Bob Schindelbeck oversees the operations and the development of new analytic offerings at the Cornell Soil Health Laboratory. He has been part of the Cornell Soil Health Team’s development of soil management strategies to address laboratory-measured soil constraints since 2003. Bob delivers extension presentations across the state on comprehensive soil health testing and on soil health management planning. He also conducts research on changes in soil physical and biological properties in long-term tillage experiments.

Kitty Gifford

Kitty Gifford

Communications Specialist

Phone: 607-592-3062
Email: kmg277@cornell.edu

Kitty Gifford is providing communications support for the New York Soil Health Project. She strategizes and executes a wide range of creative work to advance the initiative’s mission to facilitate farmer adoption of soil health practices.

Project Alumni

With appreciation for all the excellent contributions to New York Soil Health by:

Cedric Wood Mason (2017-2019), Aaron Ristow (2017-2018), Haley Rylander (2019-2020)

New York Soil Health Collaborators

Cornell faculty and staff, including:

  • Cornell Soil Health Assessment Lab
  • Cornell Cooperative Extension

Government Agencies

  • NYS Ag&Mkts
  • USDA – NCRS
  • NYS Soil and Water Conservation Districts
  • NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation

Growers

Non-profits

  • New York Farm Viability Institute (NYFVI)
  • American Farmland Trust
  • NE Organic Farmers Association — New York (NOFA-NY)
  • The Nature Conservancy
  • New York Farm Bureau

Ag & Supply Chain Businesses

  • Ag Consulting Services (ACS)
  • Dairy One
  • WNY Crop Consultants
  • AgriSeeds
  • Kreher’s Poultry Fertilizer and Compost
New York Soil Health is supported through the New York State Environmental Protection Fund administered through the Department of New York Agriculture and Markets.