![Andrea Basche](images/faculty/BascheAndrea2109-4x5in-cropped.jpg)
ANDREA BASCHE
Associate Professor
Andrea is a cropping systems agronomist with teaching and research responsibilities in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. She received her Ph.D. in 2015 from Iowa State University in agronomy and sustainable agriculture.
CV (January 2023) (PDF file)
Email: abasche2@unl.edu
![Brooke McWherter](faculty/basche/McWherter_Brooke-4x5.jpg)
Brooke McWherter
Research Assistant Professor
Brooke is a natural resource social scientist in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. As a natural resource social scientist, she aims to leverage social science theories with mixed methods to support and build individual and organizational capacities in decision-making around natural resource and agricultural management. McWherter has worked with producers and organizational partners worldwide including South America, Canada and the USA. Her research is currently interested in (1) how individuals and organizations perceive the future of agricultural systems and their role in making those futures, (2) how systems thinking shapes individual and organizational adaptation and planning in response to socio-ecological change, and (3) what social impacts may result from natural resource and agricultural decisions, policies and programs. In addition to her research, McWherter has worked with numerous organizations and governmental agencies, leveraging systems thinking theory to conduct workshops aimed at enhancing program design and fostering engagement. Through the development of logic models, social impact frameworks, and success factors, she extends the application of her research to practical solutions within the natural resource and agricultural sectors.
Before starting at UNL, McWherter was a Mitacs post-doctoral fellow at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. She obtained her Ph.D. in Natural Resource Social Sciences from Purdue University, M.S. in Conservation Ecology and Environmental Justice at the University of Michigan, and her B.S. in Wildlife Biology in her home state of Missouri at Missouri State University.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-mcwherter/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=K2kzGEAAAAAJ&hl=en
Email: brookemcw.socsci@gmail.com
![Tauana Ferreira de Almeida](images/people/portrait/AlmeidaTauana_0913-4x5.jpg)
Tauana Ferreira de Almeida
Ph. D. Graduate Student
Tauana is an Agronomist and holds a master’s degree in soil science from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil. Now she is pursuing her Ph.D. degree in the Agronomy and Horticulture Department at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. She is leading the team’s participation in the Precision Sustainable Agriculture Coordinated Agriculture Project. She is researching the efficiency of cover crops under different management systems to improve soil health, control weeds and pests and increase cash crop yield.
Email: tauana.almeida.agro@gmail.com or tferreiradealmeida2@huskers.unl.edu
![Grace Emperatriz Pacheco Jiron](images/people/portrait/PachecoGrace_0858-edited4x5.jpg)
Grace Emperatriz Pacheco Jiron
M.S. Graduate Student
Grace is originally from Honduras-Nicaragua and has a B.Sc. degree in Agricultural Sciences and Production form Zamorano University, and currently pursuing a M.S. degree in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Presently she is working with the Cover Crop Initiative, a collaborative project between UNL and NRCS to advance knowledge and utilization of cover crops in Nebraska. Grace is researching the short-term effect that different species and varieties of cover crops have in soil carbon and nitrogen pools. As well as, evaluating and comparing above ground cover crop measurements with UAV imagery.
Email: gpacheco2@huskers.unl.edu or graceemperatriz@gmail.com
![Bridget McKinley](images/people/portrait/BridgetMcKinley-4x5.jpg)
Bridget McKinley
M.S. Graduate Student
Bridget is originally from the Jersey Shore and holds her B.S. in Sustainability with a concentration in Agroecology from Stockton University. Bridget is pursuing her M.S. in Agronomy, with research focusing on the productivity of cover crops as part of multi-cite variety trials. Her research objectives are to understand the above and below-ground performance of cover crops planted as monocultures or mixtures and understand the potential of increasing both the resilience and efficiency of various agroecosystems.
![Madeline Johnston](images/people/portrait/JohnstonMadeline_7370-4x5.jpg)
Madeline Johnston
M.S. Graduate Student
Madeline is pursuing her Master’s degree at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She is researching Kernza®, the first commercially-available perennial grain crop in the U.S., to characterize its physiology and resulting ecosystem benefits. This is a multi-state project in collaboration with KernzaCAP and The Land Institute who seek to address the need for sustainable global food production via regenerative agriculture. Before coming to Nebraska, Madeline received a Bachelor of Science in 2022 from Messiah University in Molecular Biology.
![Rose Alcine Lovely Zamord](faculty/basche/Rose-Alcine-Lovely-Zamord4x5.jpg)
Rose Alcine Lovely Zamord
Visiting Research Scholar
Rose Alcine Lovely is originally from Haiti. She received her B.Sc. degree in Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resource Management from EARTH University in Costa Rica in 2022. She is a research scholar at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln during the spring/summer of 2024, supporting the group’s work on the cover crop initiative to advance knowledge and utilization of cover crop in Nebraska. She also helps in writing reports relating to summer cover crops. She is looking forward to pursuing her studies in the USA.
RESEARCH GROUP ALUMNI
![Matheus Ferrari Menegat](faculty/basche/students/MatheusFerrariMenegat-4x5.jpg)
Matheus Ferrari Menegat
Research Scholar
Matheus Ferrari Menegat was a research scholar at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln during the spring and summer of 2023. He supported the group’s work on the Precision Sustainable Agriculture (PSA) project on the cover crop management and cropping systems. He is pursuing his undergrad in Agronomy at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in South of Brazil.
![Roberta Bianchin Rebesquini](images/people/portrait/Roberta-Bianchin-Rebesquini4x5.jpg)
Roberta Bianchin Rebesquini
M.S. Graduate Student
Roberta is originally from south Brazil and graduated from Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) – Brazil, with her B.S. in Agronomy. She completed her M.S. degree at Nebraska in Fall 2023. Her researching to evaluated the management and production of Kernza®️, a perennial grain crop developed by The Land Institute. Roberta is now a research intern with Corteva in Johnston, Iowa.
![FERNANDA KRUPEK](images/people/portrait/SouzaKrupek-Fernanda0795-4x5web.jpg)
FERNANDA KRUPEK
Ph.D. Graduate Student
Fernanda Krupek received her Ph.D. in Spring 2023. Her research was a part of the Soil Health Initiative, a state-wide project with on-farm experiments. Her work is published in Geoderma and Agricultural and Environmental Letters. She is now an assistant professor at The Ohio State University’s Department of Crop and Horticultural Sciences.
Fernanda was awarded first place for a video summary she put together about her research at the 2020 SciComm Conference in the Graduate Student Lightning Video category.
![Salvador Ramirez II](/images/people/portrait/RamirezSalvador_3154-4x5.jpg)
SALVADOR RAMIREZ II
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Salvador Ramirez II completed his Ph.D. with Rhae Drijber in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture in December of 2020 and worked as postdoctoral fellow on our team until the Spring of 2022. He supported numerous research projects and led teaching efforts in Spring 2022 for Resource Efficient Crop Management. He is now working for the USDA ARS unit in Lincoln, NE.
![](images/people/portrait/OysElizabeth_9239-4x5.jpg)
Elizabeth Oys
M.S. Graduate Student
Originally from south central Minnesota, Elizabeth graduated from Iowa State University with her BS in Agronomy and Global Resource Systems and completed her MS in Agronomy on our team in the Spring 2022 semester. She is now working for Gowan Company. Her research on the effects of cover crop systems on weed populations through the Soil Health Initiative project can be found in the UNL Digital Repository. Elizabeth is now a Technical Service Representative with Gowan USA.
![Nilovna Chatterjee](images/people/portrait/ChatterjeeNilovna_768x960v2.jpg)
NILOVNA CHATTERJEE
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Nilovna received her Ph.D. at the University of Florida in 2018 and led our cover crop modeling efforts as a post doctoral research fellow from 2018-2020, published in Agronomy Journal. She is now working as a scientist with CiBO Technologies. Learn more about Nilovna and her work at https://nilovna.weebly.com.
![Brittany Kirsch](/images/people/portrait/Brittany-Kirsch-edited-4x5.jpg)
Brittany Kirsch
M.S. Graduate Student
Brittany is originally from a small town in north-central Iowa. She graduated from Iowa State University with a B.S. in Agronomy. She completed her M.S. degree in Summer 2020 and is now a soil conservationist with the USDA-NRCS in Sargent Bluff, Iowa. Her thesis, titled “Impact of agricultural land use on stream nitrate, phosphorus and sediment concentrations at the watershed and field scale” can be found in the UNL Digital Repository.
![Dania Vieira Branco Ozorio](faculty/basche/dania-edited-4x5.jpg)
Dania Vieira Branco Ozorio
Research Scholar
Dania Vieira Branco Ozorio was a research scholar at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln during the spring/summer of 2020. She supported the group’s work on the Soil Health Initiative and the development of a decision-support tool for cover crops. Her work culminated in several CropWatch articles. She received her B.S. in Agronomy in 2016 and her M.S. degree in Plant Health with focus on Entomology and Vegetal Virology in 2018, both from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. She is looking forward to continuing her studies in the USA.
![Gustavo Pesini](faculty/basche/Gustavo-Pesini-4x5.jpg)
Gustavo Pesini
International Visiting Scholar
Gustavo Pesini was a research scholar at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln during the spring and summer of 2022. He supported the group’s work on the Precision Sustainable Agriculture (PSA) project. His work is focused on the cover crop management and cropping systems. He is pursuing his undergrad in Agronomy at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in South of Brazil. He is looking forward to graduate school in Agronomy and starting his masters in the U.S. in 2024.