Becky joined UNH in 2004. She has a split appointment as Cooperative Extension sustainable horticulture specialist, as Extension Professor of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems in the Department of Agriculture, Nutrition & Food Systems, and as a researcher with the NH Agricultural Experiment Station. She also coordinates UNH’s Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems undergraduate programs. Before coming to UNH, she worked as a plant geneticist and lettuce breeder with the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Salinas, California.

Becky received her B.A. in Biology from Dartmouth College and a PhD in Plant Genetics from Cornell University. She grew up with plants and agriculture on a highly diversified farm in Vermont.

Her areas of expertise include sustainable agriculture, season extension and high tunnel production, vegetable and small fruit crops, plant breeding and genetics, plant disease resistance and disease management. Her applied research projects have the goal of helping growers to minimize production costs and ecological impacts, while producing economically viable yields of high-quality crops. Recent projects have focused on identifying new crops, cultivars and production practices, including season extension technologies, that expand opportunities for vegetable and berry growers in northern New England.