Kate Polakiewicz

Kate Polakiewicz is an agricultural scientist specializing in sustainable production and extension services for small-scale producers in the developing world, with a background in fair trade certification and supply chain labor practices. Polakiewicz also helps lead the development of coffee education at UC Davis through the design of a new undergraduate course titled, “Good Coffee: The Biology, History, and Cultural Impacts of the World’s Favorite Drink.” This interdisciplinary course will provide students with an introduction to critical themes in agriculture.

Polakiewicz’s background includes a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture through the UC Davis School of Education to train and engage agricultural teachers in applied experiential learning methodologies to amend degraded soil structure at a vocational school in rural Haiti. This year, the UC Davis graduate student will work with Catholic Relief Services’ Blue Harvest program in Honduras, which impacts hundreds of producer communities through watershed management of coffee growing regions, as part of a UC-USAID fellowship.