Dr. Keri Carstens is Chief Executive Officer for Jord BioScience, where she leads Jord’s product development, operations and commercial efforts. Keri grew up on a farm, continues to farm, and has devoted her career to delivering safe, sustainable solutions that benefit farmers globally. Prior to Jord, Keri spent 14 years at Corteva Agriscience, where she led global regulatory strategy, served on the leadership team to build and launch Corteva’s seed applied technologies and biologicals businesses, and held key roles in regulatory science and program management. In 2019 she was recognized as a Laureate in Corteva’s R&D organization, one of the company’s highest honors for scientists. She is a recognized industry leader, having served as Chair of the American Seed Trade Association’s Seed Treatment & Environment Committee, and served in steering roles for the Honey Bee Health Coalition and Entomological Society of America. In addition, Keri holds adjunct graduate faculty status at Iowa State University, where she mentors graduate students and co-teaches in regulatory toxicology and pesticides courses. Keri grew up on a farm near Grinnell, Iowa, and earned her B.A. in Biology and Education from Wartburg College, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Toxicology and Entomology from Iowa State University. She and her husband, Jeff, have three daughters and the family enjoys their small farm that includes row crops and pollinator habitat outside of Ames, IA.

Sarah serves as the lead for stakeholder communication at Pairwise—a food and tech company committed to building a healthier world through better fruits and vegetables. Prior to joining Pairwise, Sarah was a professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI) on the campus of Cornell University. At BTI, she worked at the nexus of plant science and the societal issues that affect the plant science research enabling environment. There, she served as the founding Director of the Alliance for Science—a global communications effort that aims to improve science literacy and science-informed policy making across a range of science issues, including agricultural biotechnology. For twelve years Sarah was based in International Programs in the college of Agriculture and Life Science (IP-CALS) at Cornell. There she held a number of positions including Sr. Associate Director of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat Project and Sr. Associate Director of International Programs. At IP-CALS, Sarah was instrumental in launching the CALS initiative, AWARE (Advancing Women in Agriculture through Research and Education) which promotes women in agriculture. Sarah is the 2021 Borlaug CAST Communication Award winner and a Senior Fellow at the Breakthrough Institute. In 2022 she received the Mary Clutter Leadership in Science Public Service Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists. Sarah received her PhD in Plant Biology from Cornell University in 2009 in Plant Biology. She completed a BA in Biology at Reed College in Portland Oregon. Sarah grew up in a small agricultural village in northwest Illinois and enjoys life in the Finger Lakes with her three children.

Dr. Judith A. Chambers’ international team supports interested partner countries in Africa and Asia on the technical development and implementation of evidence-based biosafety systems and independent decision making for the use of precision genetics to support innovative agriculture research and products. She began her professional journey with a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology (1986) from the University of Pennsylvania where she studied the molecular action of various animal viruses related to HIV. Her post-doctoral studies were conducted at an entrepreneurial biotech company, where she focused on agriculture applications and specifically on the molecular characterization of Bt genes (CryIF) for insect pest control. For the next 2 decades, she served in various public and private sector positions where she developed and managed initiatives to ensure that the opportunities of biotechnology could be applied to the agriculture issues facing many developing countries. Notably, she served as the Senior Biotechnology Advisor at USAID and co-developed the first public-private sector initiative on agriculture biotechnology to support developing country agriculture needs. At a former private agriculture biotechnology company, she served as Director for International Government Affairs and supported the company’s philanthropic efforts to share its proprietary technology with resource poor, small scale farmers who work every day to bridge the food security gap. In summary, Dr. Chambers has devoted her entire career ensuring that the technical and policy systems are in place to expand farmer choice and technology access. Her long history of involvement with agriculture biotechnology and development has provided her with a reflective global insight on how evidence-based decision making supports agricultural genetic innovations on behalf of resource poor farmers and consumers.