Phoebe Gordon, Madera and merced counties
Phoebe Gordon covers all tree crops aside from citrus in Madera county and stone fruit and figs in Merced. She has been working for Cooperative Extension since 2017, and also has a podcast called Growing the Valley, which you can find at www.growingthevalleypodcast.com. She got her Ph.D. in Horticulture and Crop Science at The Ohio State University and her Bachelors in Science in Plant Biology at University of California, Davis.
kari arnold, stanislaus county
Kari Arnold covers walnuts, apricots, grapes and cherries in Stanislaus County, and apricots in San Joaquin County. She began working for Cooperative Extension in November of 2017. She received her PhD from the University of California, Davis, in the Department of Plant Pathology while working with viruses in grapevines. She obtained a Bachelor of Science from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Jhalendra Rijal, San Joaquin, Merced, and stanislaus counties
Jhalendra Rijal covers arthropod pest-related issues of all major crops including nut crops, stone fruits, field, and vegetable crops as an Areawide IPM Advisor in the northern San Joaquin Valley (San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced). He has been working for Cooperative Extension since 2015. He also has a pest management blog, IPMCorner.com, which provides local pest issues, pest monitoring, and degree-days information to his clientele. Jhalendra received his Ph.D. in Entomology from Virginia Tech, as well as a Master’s Degree in Entomology and Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture from the Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
Roger Duncan, stanislaus county
Roger Duncan has served as a Pomology Advisor in Stanislaus County since 1995 and also serves as County Director. His research efforts include evaluation of rootstocks, varieties, orchard design, pruning systems, alternatives to pre-plant fumigation, labor reduction in peaches, tree fertility and integrated pest management. He received his B.S. in Plant Science / Plant Pathology from UC Davis and M.S. from CSU Fresno.
Mae Culumber, UC ANR Cooperative Extension, Fresno County
Mae Culumber has with UC ANR Cooperative Extension since 2016. She serves a Nut Crop Advisor in Fresno County. Culumber is working with growers and other industry stakeholders on a range of issues that impact tree crop health and productivity in Fresno County. Culumber’s program focuses on enhancing the sustainability and viability of nut crop agriculture by conducting applied research and providing outreach education in soil, water, and nutrition management. Her research is focused on finding practical, sustainable solutions that are feasible to implement in orchard operations. Dr. Culumber received her bachelor’s degree from University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (2002), and her master’s (2007) and doctorate (2016) degrees from Utah State University.
Mohammed Yaghmour, UC ANR Cooperative Extension, Kern County
Dr. Mohammad Yaghmour joined UCCE on October 1, 2015 as area orchard systems advisor. Prior to joining ANR, Yaghmour was a Postdoctoral Scholar at UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology in Dr. Rick Bostock’s lab, performing research on fungal diseases of orchard crops with an emphasis on stone fruit diseases and thousand cankers disease of walnut. As a graduate student researcher in the department, from 2004 to 2010, Yaghmour identified sources of inoculum of Geotrichum candidum causing sour rot of peaches and nectarines, factors affecting disease development, and characterized the causal agent. During his master’s studies at CSU Fresno between 2000 and 2003, Yaghmour worked as a lab and research assistant on soil and plant pathology projects. Before attending graduate school, I worked with my family farming and growing potatoes under center pivots between 1997 and 1999. I was also lucky to intern for a whole season pruning peaches and nectarines among other orchard crops. Dr. Yaghmour completed his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from UC Davis, a M.S. in Plant Science from CSU Fresno, and a B.S. in Plant Production from University of Jordan.
Elizabeth Fichtner, UC ANR Cooperative Extension, Tulare County
Elizabeth J. Fichtner has served as a UCCE Farm Advisor in Tulare County since 2009. In her current position she covers pistachio, almond, walnut, pecan, prune, and olive in Tulare County, and also extends service to Kings County walnut growers. Elizabeth completed a BS in Horticulture at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) in 1997 and then completed her MS and PhD in Soil Science and Plant Pathology at NC State (Raleigh, NC). Due to her interests in both soil chemistry and plant pathology, Elizabeth’s dissertation research focused on soil ecology and manipulation of soil microbiological and chemical characteristics for suppression of plant pathogens.
Leaving the east coast in 2003, Elizabeth joined UC Davis as a post-doctoral scientist in the Department of Plant Pathology. During her tenure at Davis, Elizabeth conducted research on forest diseases in both California and England, focusing extensively on the epidemiology of introduced, invasive Phytophthora species. Elizabeth enjoys her position with UCCE in the southern San Joaquin Valley where she has the opportunity to serve the agricultural industry and maintain active field research as well as laboratory studies. In her current position, she maintains active research programs on emerging diseases of nut crops and horticultural investigations for improved agricultural productivity.
My name is George Zhuang, and I started as UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Viticulture Farm Advisor for Fresno County in 2015. I am originally from China and did my undergraduate studies in Viticulture and Enology at China Agricultural University between 2005 and 2009. After that I began my graduate studies in Horticulture at Michigan State University where I pursued my Master’s degree focusing on cool climate viticulture. After I graduated from Michigan State University, I was offered the opportunity to gain additional experience at E. & J. Gallo winery in 2013 and 2014.
My research interests focus on vine mechanization, vine nutrition, irrigation and variety/rootstock evaluation.
Karl Lund is the University of California Cooperative Extension Viticulture Advisor for Madera, Merced and Mariposa Counties. His primary research project is looking at nematode resistant rootstocks for use in the San Joaquin Valley. In addition to this project he is also working on a project looking at mechanical leaf pulling and wine quality. Karl's future research directions will continue to focus on rootstocks for both pathogen and salt tolerance. He is also looking forward to continuing his work on mechanization and broadening that work to all aspects of vineyard production. Lastly he is hoping to shift part of his research into groundwater recharge and understanding vineyard water use. Prior to his current position Karl taught the basic viticulture class at Cal Poly during the 2015-2016 school year. He got his PhD in genetics from UC Davis where he worked in The laboratory of Dr. Andy Walker. Karl's PhD research focused on the diversity of phylloxera in California, and across it's native range in the Eastern and Southwestern US. He also identified germplasm with broad resistance to the many different types of phylloxera found in California.