Growing up in a rural farming community in northern California, Anna started working with a local vegetable farmer and started her own plant business, Anna’s Herbs. Wanting to teach agricultural science and spread public awareness about food production, Anna went to the University of California, Davis to get a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural and Environmental Education. She then became fascinated by the role of research in addressing the challenges farmers are facing on the farm and worked on a project to understand the role of winter cover crops in farm drought resiliency. After completing a master’s degree in Sustainability Science and Environmental Studies at Lund University in Sweden, researching farmer adoption of practices which mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from arable soils in the Netherlands at Wageningen University, Anna started a PhD in Earth System Science at Stanford University, now studying farm carbon and nitrogen cycling, soil water management, and circular crop nutrients. Contact her at opinions 'at' stanforddaily.com.