Jessica Chiartas - Research Director

Jessica Chiartas is a postdoctoral scholar with the Innovation Institute for Food and Health at the University of California, Davis, where she also completed her PhD in Soils & Biogeochemistry. Her research focuses on the long-term impacts of agriculture on soil health and overall ecosystem services, with a unique focus on soil carbon at depth. She is interested in better understanding soil health/regenerative agriculture on a soil type, cropping system, climate specific basis, as well as the standardization of metrics and methodologies for use in policy initiatives, economic markets, and other incentive programs.

She serves on the Soil Science Society of America Science Policy Committee, the North Coast Soil Health Hub Advisory Board, the ROC Soil Health Advisory Committee, and the Planet Fwd Advisory Board. She is the UC Davis partner member on the California Farm Demonstration Network, which brings together California Department of Food and Ag, UC Davis, UC Cooperative Extension, UC Ag and Natural Resources, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Resource Conservation Districts, and Farm Bureau to create a farmer-to-farmer network of discovery, support, and knowledge/information sharing. She is President and Lead Scientist for Regen1, a platform designed to connect purchasers to farmers and ranchers who are implementing regenerative practices, achieving regenerative outcomes, and providing verification of both. In collaboration with NRCS, she developed a website called Soil Life and a series of short videos and educational resources that educate, empower, and engage young people in positive soil- based solutions to global challenges.