People

Current Lab Members

Principal Investigator

Kevin Murphy
Born and raised among a community of rice researchers in the Philippines, Kevin’s first independent study at the age of ten focused on the symbiotic benefits of intercropping the nitrogen-fixing aquatic plant azolla with cultivated rice. Kevin received his BS in Biology from Colorado College, after which he spent seven years working on a wide range of vegetable, fruit tree, and livestock-integrated farms in Arkansas, Michigan and Washington. While managing a diversified farm on the Olympic Peninsula, Kevin and the farm crew grew over 500 varieties of 60 different crops, including several of these for seed. Motivated by these experiences, and a desire to develop resilient varieties of under-utilized, flavorful and nutritious crops, Kevin received his PhD in 2007 from WSU in organic and perennial wheat breeding. He is an Associate Professor of International Seed Systems in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at WSU, where he and his team, the Sustainable Seed Systems Lab, work on breeding, agronomy, end-use quality, and nutritional value of quinoa, barley, perennial grains, proso millet, spelt, and buckwheat. They emphasize crops, varieties, and/or farming systems that optimize nutritional value and provide tolerance to heat, drought, and diseases while improving yield, flavor and end-use quality. Cropping systems research in the lab has included studies on intercropping, cover crops, crop rotation effects, no-till farming, crop-livestock integration, and optimal planting dates and nitrogen, irrigation and seeding rates. Kevin has participated in international research and extension projects in Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan and now collaborates on sustainable agriculture research projects in Ecuador, Rwanda, Kenya, and Malawi.

Research Associates

Cedric Habiyaremye
Cedric leads and facilitates quinoa research in Rwanda and assists in the quinoa variety and agronomic trials development in Malawi, Kenya, and other potentially interested countries. He is also the spokesperson for the WSU Sustainable Seed Systems Lab. Originally from Rwanda, Cedric previously served as the youngest member of the Global Agriculture Task Force of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He also served as a fellow for the US Borlaug in Global Food Security, the Borlaug Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Program, and the Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development. He received his MS and PhD degrees in Crop Science from Washington State University, a BS in Agricultural Science with Honors in Irrigation and Drainage, and an Advanced Diploma in Soil and Water Management both from the University of Rwanda College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine. He is also a recipient of the 2018 world hunger leadership award.

Graduate Students

Rachel Breslauer
Rachel is from the Hudson Valley where NYC suburbia transitions to the more rural landscape of upstate NY. Her interests in agriculture similarly exist at the intersection of people (i.e. food security) and food production. She obtained a BSc in Agricultural Sciences with research honors at Cornell University. She later pursued a MSc in Soil Science at WSU studying the agronomic effect of dense subsoils on wheat grown in dryland cropping systems. Rachel joined the Sustainable Seed Systems lab in 2019 as a PhD student as part of the Soil to Society research initiative and is focused on agronomic approaches to obtaining nutrient dense cropping systems. Her research encompasses understanding processes affecting seed nutritional value including: timing of soil nutrient supply, nutrient uptake synergisms and antagonisms, and root system plasticity. More broadly, she aims to continue work developing agronomic practices for quinoa production in the Pacific Northwest.

Tayler Reinman
Tayler grew up in Southern California, in a small town nestled up against the Los Padres National Forest that is known for its citrus production. This setting inspired her to explore themes of ecology and agriculture throughout her career. She earned her BS in Environmental Science at University of California Santa Barbara where she took classes that allowed her to begin exploring sustainable agriculture, but after undergrad, she focused on ecology, working as a naturalist and guide in several diverse ecosystems throughout the Western US. After several years of guiding, she came back to agriculture as a farm hand and propagation manager at a small-scale diverse vegetable farm in western Washington. Tayler is now pursuing her interest in agroecology, a marriage of these two passions, as an MS student in the Sustainable Seed Systems Lab at WSU. She is currently working as a research assistant on a participatory buckwheat and proso millet variety trialing project, promoting crop and market diversification in the PNW.

Evan Domsic
For the past decade, Evan has been immersed in the organic agricultural movement, working as a farmhand and farm manager on several organic farms, and as an instructor at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems in Santa Cruz, CA. He earned his Bachelors in Environmental Science with a concentration in Agroecology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is interested in the intersection of plant breeding, soil science, seed sovereignty, and ultimately, agriculture's effect on our changing climates. He aspires to be a plant breeder, working in organic systems with grains, specialty crops, or cut flowers, with small-scale farmers’ success in mind. Evan is working on a FFAR (Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research) funded project looking at the relationships between soil health and nutritional quality in organic quinoa production in Western Washington. In addition, he is passionate about baking, preserving, and brewing just about anything he can get his hands on. His favorite way to spend a day is harvesting produce from the fields to cook a meal for loved ones.

Olivier Ndayiramije
Olivier is an impact-driven agricultural entrepreneur and scientist focusing on economic development through agricultural innovation. As an entrepreneur, Olivier is a Co-Founder and COO of QuinoaHub Ltd., a super grains production and research company that helps farmers grow nutritious food. As a Researcher, Olivier serves as a Rwanda quinoa research program coordinator where he oversees the Participatory Quinoa Research Program in Rwanda—a joint research program with the Sustainable Seed Systems Lab at Washington State University. In addition, he manages research trials and the adoption of quinoa as a new crop in the farming communities of Rwanda. Previously, Olivier worked on several agricultural research and development projects in Rwanda, working with Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) on various research projects, including Participatory Variety Selection (PVS)on different crops and farmer field school programs. He holds a BS in Agricultural Science with Honors in Crop Production and an Advanced Diploma in Crop Production from the University of Rwanda, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine. One of Olivier’s favorite quotes is,” Not what I have but what I do, is my kingdom.”

Kat Wheeler
For the past decade, Kat has made her way across the complex terrain of food systems. Working at the intersection of government, NGO, private sector, scientific, and public advocacy communities, Kat is dedicated to the realization of social, environmental, and economic sustainability in food systems. Before joining WSU's Sustainable Seed Systems Lab, Kat was Project Officer at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Consulting's Food Systems and Security Hub (FSSH) where she advised public, private, and third sector clients on topics such as urban food system governance and zoonotic disease. Prior to this role, Kat spent three years facilitating stakeholder dialogues on science- and policy-related issues including plant breeding innovation, food traceability, climate impacts on agriculture, communication and food labelling, and veterinary medical countermeasures. Kat has also supported farm-to-school in Michigan, conducted research on coffee farmers' views on third party certifications in Costa Rica, and advocated for farmworker rights in Florida. Kat earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies with a minor in Biology from Eckerd College.

Lab Manager

Jessica Braden
Jessica was born in southern California, but was raised most of her life in the greater Seattle area. After high school she attended the Seattle Culinary Academy at Seattle Central Community College, receiving her Culinary Arts Certificate in 2006. However, she became motivated to further diversify her education. Shortly after receiving her BS in Wildlife Ecology from WSU in 2013, she joined the Nutrient Cycling and Rhizosphere Ecology (NCRE) Lab in the WSU Crop and Soil Sciences Department as a lab technician. In 2015, she was offered a position to manage the NCRE Lab’s Soil Plant Waste Analytical Lab Service Center. Essentially, operating and maintaining several analytical instruments, while overseeing all other laboratory and clerical functions. As of November 2020, she manages the WSU Sustainable Seed Systems Lab (SSSL) as a Scientific Assistant. She joined the SSSL to assist with general laboratory oversight, instrument maintenance and operation, and to support the creation of calibration protocols for seed specific nutritional research developed by our graduate students.

Project Manager

Ali Schultheis
Ali was born and raised in Portland, OR where she grew up playing softball and reading every book about Appaloosa horses she could find. Enamored with the Palouse landscape and the family grain farm, Ali loved visiting her grandparents in Colton, WA in the summer and riding in the combine during harvest. She moved up to Eastern Washington to get her B.A. in Sociology and Environmental Studies from Gonzaga University, where she learned just how interconnected the health of humans and the environment are. This led her to the public health field, where she worked as a Health Education Specialist in Lewiston, ID until traveling to Missoula, MT to earn her M.S. in Environmental Science at the University of Montana. There, she concentrated on Sustainable Agriculture and Local Food Systems, but it wasn't until reading "Grain by Grain" by Bob Quinn and Liz Carlisle, that she discovered her passions align through grain production. Ali works as the project manager for the SAS Soil to Society grant which brings together the crop and soil sciences, food science, and health and medicine disciplines to create more nutritious, affordable, and accessible whole grain-based foods.

Former Lab Members

Morgan Gardner
Morgan was born and raised in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. After her work on an environmental remediation project in Nigeria with TerraGraphics Environmental Engineering, she enrolled in graduate school at Washington State University where she became deeply interested in the connection between culture and food. For her M.S. in Environmental Science, she studied the introduction of quinoa in Malawi under Dr. Kevin Murphy, evaluating the possibility of growing quinoa as a supplemental crop. She was particularly interested in understanding the social and cultural acceptance of quinoa as a potential food crop. Morgan now works as an International Outreach Coordinator for University of Idaho International Programs.

Hannah Walters
Hannah grew up in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains near Nederland, Colorado. She started her undergraduate degree at Colorado State University as a Nutrition Science major. One Crop Science class led Hannah to a job with the dry bean breeder and volunteering on a local farm. Inspired by her experiences, she decided she wanted to grow food instead and this led to a change in her majors. At WSU, she received an MS in Crop Science in 2014. She worked with Kevin Murphy on quinoa breeding and agronomy and was fully funded by the Seed Matters/Clif Bar Family Foundation as a Graduate Student Fellow. After her MS, she worked as a research technician in the Sustainable Seed Systems Lab Hannah is now living in Wenatchee, WA working at Stemilt in tree fruit research and development.

Adam Peterson
Adam grew up in Rochester, Washington. His interest in science, nature, and self-sufficiency led him to pursue studies in organic agriculture at the Evergreen State College, where he earned his BA with a focus in Environmental Studies and Sustainable Agriculture. Drawn to plant breeding as an important tool for diversifying and improving the sustainability of regional agriculture systems, he found himself drawn to the work of Dr. Kevin Murphy at WSU. Adam managed the Olympia location of WSU's first quinoa variety trials in 2010. This led to Adam pursuing a MS in Crop Science the following year at WSU. His research focused on quinoa salinity tolerance, heat tolerance, and quinoa breeding. Adam has since worked with quinoa farmers across the West Coast for Lundberg Family Farms, where he is now a Quinoa Consultant. Adam is also pursuing a Master of GIS for Sustainability Management program at the University of Washington.

Geyang Wu
Geyang was born and raised in Baoji, China. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Food Quality and Safety at the China Agriculture University and her Master’s degree in Food Science at the Beijing Technology and Business University. She conducted research on microbiology and enzymes for her undergraduate project and Master's thesis, respectively. Geyang joined WSU in the fall of 2012 Geyang went on to study grain science for her PhD program, motivated by the importance of grain in human nutrition and food security. Interested in interdisciplinary research, Geyang has developed a project combining Crop Science and Food Science. She believes that a nutritious crop like quinoa deserves to be adopted by industry and farmers worldwide, such as China and other Asian countries. Geyang completed her PhD degree in Food Science at WSU in 2016. She worked on cereal chemistry, seed quality, and sensory evaluation of quinoa.

Alison Detjens
Alison was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She obtained her BA in Anthropology from Michigan State University focusing on Peace and Justice Studies and local food systems. She spent the last semester of her BA abroad in Durban, South Africa. After graduation, she taught English as a second language in Quito, Ecuador. After a roundabout journey throughout the United States she landed in the Pacific Northwest. In Leavenworth, Washington, she helped manage a small-scale organic farm for several years. Most recently, she taught Sustainable Agriculture at the Wenatchee Valley Community College and managed their organic garden and greenhouse. She completed her MS in Agriculture with Dr. Jessica Goldberger in 2016. Her research focused on the socio-economic feasibility and potential adaption of US grown quinoa, specifically in Washington.

Kisusan Khati
Kisusan is from the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal. He completed his Bachelor’s degree at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences at Tribhuvan University, Nepal, with majors in Agriculture and Agricultural Economics. During his undergraduate studies, he was elected president of the Free Student Union, where he developed his leadership skills. After completing his Bachelor’s degree, he worked as a consultant for the Swiss corporation, HELVETAS. Working closely with rural farmers, he witnessed their struggles firsthand. Motivated to help rural farmers, he decided to pursue a MS in Soil Science, and joined WSU in the fall of 2013. He conducted research with Kevin Murphy and Dr. Joan Davenport to evaluate different irrigation and soil fertility management regimes for quinoa in the Columbia Basin.

Louisa Winkler
Louisa is British-Swiss and was born and raised in Hong Kong. She obtained her BS in Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford in 2006 and became interested in crop science after working in agricultural development and in organic agriculture policy. Louisa spent three years conducting crops research for the UK’s Organic Research Centre, based on an agroforestry farm in Suffolk, England. There, the focus was on agricultural approaches which support high biodiversity and ecosystem health, and Louisa retains that focus in her present work. Louisa completed a PhD in Plant Breeding at Washington State University in 2017. She researched development of oat germplasm for western Washington. Her work included aspects of history, food system economics, agronomy, animal nutrition and the milling-oat supply chain. Louisa’s research was supported by a fellowship from the Seed Matters Initiative of the Clif Bar Family Foundation and additional funding from Wilcox Family Farms

Janet Matanguihan
Janet grew up in Los Baños, Philippines. As a child, she helped her mother with her doctoral research in entomology, feeding and dissecting moth larvae. As an adolescent, she and her younger sister trailed after their mother in various farmers’ fields and research reviews. Thus, her path was set. She obtained a BS in Agriculture from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), and her first job was at the International Rice Research Institute where she worked on rice diseases. She then went to WSU for her MS in Plant Pathology. After this, she joined UPLB as Assistant Professor in Plant Pathology. After several years teaching college courses, Janet went back to WSU and obtained her PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics. Janet was the Sustainable Seed Systems Lab research associate working on marker-assisted selection for food and malting barley. She was involved in the development of herbicide-resistant barley and high lysine barley through mutation breeding. Janet is also a technical editor and has co-edited a book on quinoa with Kevin Murphy. She is now Assistant Professor of Biology at Messiah College.

Ian Clark
Ian was raised on a Palouse wheat farm in Washington where he is now the fifth generation to farm that land. He received a BS in Biology from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and learned of the benefits of pasture and perenniality within an agricultural system. He has worked as a research technician as well as a research intern for projects with WSU's Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources including research looking at the carbon footprint of organic farms and livestock integrated farming. Ian pursued an MS degree on the continued development of perennial wheat, which he has long heard of the potential for as a crop in the Palouse. Of particular interest to Ian is the potential to protect and restore soil after generations of erosion from annual cropping. Ian completed his MS in Crop Science from WSU in 2017.

Leo Hinojosa
Leo was born in Ecuador and grew up in a small town near Quito. His passion for nature encouraged him to study Agronomy. He obtained his Agronomic Engineering degree in Ecuador where he studied the behavior response of several varieties of potatoes to drought in a greenhouse. He was hired by the Research Institute of Agronomy in Ecuador to work with cereal crops. Afterwards, he earned a Master's degree in Spain in Environmental Agrobiology by means of an international scholarship. When he came back to Ecuador, he worked for the United Nations World Food Program for two years in humanitarian aid. He received a scholarship from the Ecuadorian Government to pursue a PhD degree. In 2013, he met Kevin Murphy at the IV Global Congress on Quinoa in Ecuador. He joined WSU in the summer of 2014 and began his doctoral research focusing on breeding quinoa for heat stress tolerance. Leo completed his PhD in Crop Science from WSU in 2018.

Halle Choi
Halle completed her B.S. in Biology in Philadelphia, PA at Drexel University. While there she worked in the Fisheries and Entomology Departments at the Academy of Natural Sciences, and in the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program (BBPP) studying primates and marine turtles. After graduation Halle traveled to Equatorial Guinea to take data for the BBPP. Halle's interest in biodiversity and evolutionary biology led her to research plant breeding, which is how she came to study barley and quinoa breeding in the Sustainable Seeds Lab at WSU. She had one project studying the effects of genotype by environment interactions on beta glucan, mineral and starch content in barley. Her other project focused on quinoa processing and its ability to improve nutritional quality in baked goods. Halle completed her MS in Crop Science in 2019. Halle is now pursuing a PhD in Food Science with the University of Idaho.

Max Wood
Max is an Idaho native who enjoys an active outdoorsy lifestyle that includes dirtbiking, backpacking, fishing, hunting, and backcountry skiing. He is responsible for the field and greenhouse operations of the Barley Breeding Program as well as other alternative crops. He focuses on the development of varieties that are competitive with current conventional lines that are hardy in the dryland cropping systems unique to the Palouse and eastern Washington. He’s very fond of the Palouse and the unparalleled riches and opportunities it has to offer and encourages all visitors to explore the region.

Kristofor Ludvigson
Originally from Wisconsin, Kristofor was a secondary school History and Political Science teacher from 2005 to 2009. He left his home state to become a United States Peace Corps volunteer in the Sub-Saharan African country of Malawi from 2009 to 2012, where he worked mainly in agroforestry and agricultural extension. Back in the US, he obtained a BS in Organic Agricultural Systems at WSU and assisted Kevin Murphy’s Sustainable Seed Systems Lab by conducting a buckwheat variety trial and supporting quinoa breeding efforts in eastern and western Washington. Kristofor’s interests lie in the areas of plant breeding as well as extension work with small-scale farms and farmers, particularly in organic and alternative production systems. Kristofor obtained his MS in Crop Science from WSU in 2017. He investigated quinoa transplanting practices and weed control using weeder geese on organic production systems. Kristofor is currently taking some time to spend with his family.

Evan Craine
Evan was raised in Western Pennsylvania, Madison, Wisconsin, and North Idaho. He earned a B.A. in Organismal Biology and Ecology and a minor in Biochemistry from Colorado College in 2015. Following graduation, Evan served as an AmeriCorps member in the Student Conservation Association and then joined the Plant Ecology Program at Archbold Biological Station as a research intern. He worked as a technician on multiple switchgrass ecology, physiology, and genomics projects at the Blackland Research and Extension Center before starting his PhD at WSU. Evan’s dissertation focuses on breeding quinoa and barley for flavor and nutrition. He is passionate about bridging the gap between farmers, stakeholders and consumers to develop nutritious and flavorful varieties with a sense of place. Evan enjoys facilitating tastings that engage the public with sensory perception of regional agricultural products. To appreciate something you must understand it, and to understand something you must experience it.

Julianne Kellogg
Julianne grew up in central Massachusetts surrounded by small-scale apple and pear producers. Julianne received her BS in Environmental science from Colorado College during which she spent a year abroad to study sustainable and diverse agroecosystems in India and Thailand. Julianne’s global agricultural career has placed her in New Zealand, Australia, and the US working with biodynamic orchardists, regenerative ranchers, and organic farmers. In 2017, Julianne earned her MS in Crop Science at WSU with research topics including evolutionary participatory quinoa breeding and soil microbiology. After her MS, she worked at the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center and the Washington State Department of Agriculture. Julianne later rejoined the Sustainable Seed Systems Lab to pursue a PhD in Crop Science with an emphasis in Human Nutrition. Julianne is based in Spokane where she works closely with researchers at WSU's College of Medicine. Shortly after Dr. Kellogg received her Ph.D, she is now the Genetics and Ingredients Research Manager in R&D at Ardent Mills.

Cristina Ocana Gallegos
Cristina was born and raised in Quito, Ecuador. She earned a Bachelor in plant biotechnology (honours) from the University of Queensland, Australia, in 2019. As part of her degree, she spent a semester abroad in Denmark, where she participated in the 'Plant biology Europe 2018' conference and discovered her passion for research on quinoa. Her honours year focused on investigating the compatibility of the Speed breeding (SB) system with the crop, by using a diverse panel of quinoa accessions. Relevant results from this study led to the identification of key genomic regions controlling Flowering time (FT) in quinoa, which might allow for more targeted breeding of short and long season varieties in the future. She is interested on crop breeding of andean grains to make them available worldwide and will soon start a MS in crop science at WSU.

Dan Packer
Daniel “Dan” Packer is a Research Associate managed the quinoa breeding and agronomy program within the Sustainable Seed Systems lab. His research emphasizes applied plant breeding methods for quinoa cultivar development and germplasm evaluation for the agricultural environments of the Pacific Northwest. Originally from San Antonio, TX, Dan has a BSc in Plant Biology from Brigham Young University and a PhD in Plant Breeding from Texas A&M University. As a BYU undergraduate, he was first introduced to quinoa research under the guidance of Eric Jellen and Peter Maughan and at Texas A&M, his plant breeding training occurred under the guidance of William “Bill” Rooney as part of a sorghum breeding and genetics program. Prior to his arrival with the SSSL, Dan was employed as a sorghum breeder with Ceres, Inc. in College Station, TX and Puerto Vallarta, MX developing inbred lines and commercial hybrids for biofuel applications. Dan now works as a Research Agronomist and Germplasm Curator with the USDA ARS National Arid Lands Plant Genetic Resources Unit.

Ellen Mahoro
Ellen is an MS student in Crop Science at WSU working with Dr. Kevin Murphy. Her research project focuses on evaluating the genotype × environment interaction and their effects on nutritional composition of quinoa. She is also interested in studying the nutritional impact of quinoa on human health. While pursuing her undergraduate studies, she worked on different projects using new technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 in plants and NIR spectroscopy in grains. She was also awarded a certificate in Preventative Control for Human Food from Food Safety Preventatives Controls Alliance (FSPCA). She has a BS in Food Science from WSU. Her undergraduate research focused on evaluating the end-use quality of wheat flour working with the Western Wheat Quality Lab.