JUNE 2019 SEEDWORLD.COM / 31 JUNIPER KISS Juniper Kiss tried to rebel against work- ing with plants. She was set on doing something different, so she chose to specialize in marine biology while work- ing in agriculture full-time. After receiving a scholarship from the American Society of Agronomy, she realized she couldn’t outrun agriculture as hard as she tried. In the fall, she will begin her PhD in plant pathology with a specialization in banana disease control in Latin America. Other than a passion for plant pathology, Kiss also founded Global Opportunities for Ecological Sustainability (GOES) magazine, an open access pub- lishing magazine for biology students that tackles a range of topics from science to conservation to sustainability. Her aim was to encourage her classmates to write and publish themselves and share their passion for science with the public. Kiss is driven by a passion to help others — one of the reasons she chose her PhD project is to work with banana farmers in the field and come up with an ecologically and economically sound solution for them with a dedicated group of scientists. KACEY BIRCHMIER Kacey Birchmier grew up on a 4th gen- eration family farm with row crops, corn and soybeans. She didn’t plan to go into the industry until she went to college and saw firsthand how far removed people were from agriculture. From then, she decided she wanted to tell that story. Birchmier served as the agronomy and conservation editor of Successful Farming before moving on to the media relations manager for Corteva Agriscience. While she loved being able to tell farmer stories through different mediums, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help share the story of a new agriculture company. Birchmier says she’s able to look at situations through different lenses. Her advice for sharing our story today? Transparency, because that’s what consumers demand from companies. The future for Birchmier all goes back to the farmer. She’s excited to see what new solutions the industry can come up with. KATELYN FRITZ Katelyn Fritz saw agriculture as a small portion of her life — that is, until she got involved with the World Food Prize. Two years later, she applied for the Borlaug- Ruan International Internship, where she was able to go to the Philippines to study biofortified rice. At Iowa State University, Fritz majored in agronomy and global resource systems with an emphasis of plant breeding and biotech- nology. At first, she thought she would focus her global resource systems major on Southeast Asia, but after hearing a guest speaker discuss his biofortifica- tion research in Guatemala, she made the switch and pursued an internship in Guatemala. After graduation, Fritz is moving to North Carolina State to pursue her mas- ter’s degree under Jeff Dunn, who spe- cializes in peanut breeding. Fritz is excited to see a change in research in the future — what changes can we make in seed if we don’t see huge changes in research all around? She’d like to see more nutrient- based products in the future. KATELYN LICHTE Katelyn Lichte grew up in rural Minnesota surrounded by corn and soybeans. She went to university to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering, and after, through Corteva Agriscience’s Emerging Leaders program, Lichte is receiving broad exposure to what the produc- tion facility does in both soybeans and corn, and she even was able to continue expanding her knowledge by taking a course through Iowa State University on genetic modification, testing and the overall seed indu-stry. Lichte isn’t just a superstar in the office, though; she’s also a superstar of her community. She works in elementary schools to help teachers teach STEM in their classes, she’s a FIRST LEGO League robotics coach with a team of seven students and she’s the outreach chair for the local section of the Society of Women Engineers. In her free time, she also likes to write on her blog Stems of Advocacy, which she uses as an outreach blog to teach people more about agriculture and engineering.