Sarah Brinkley, Ph.D. joins the PTFI from the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) – a CGIAR Center, where she is a Postdoctoral Fellow leading the Food Sampling Strategy workstream. At the PTFI, Sarah endeavors to draw complex connections between growing environment, management, plant health, and crop quality through collecting standardized, high-quality metadata. Her perennial goal is to cultivate research among diverse, international teams of food systems experts toward a more just and food-secure future.

Sarah has strong expertise in biochemical food composition including multi-omics method development, solid qualitative and quantitative data analysis skills including proficiency in the R programming language, and excellent verbal and written communication skills, as evidenced by her successfully funded grant proposals totaling over UD$100,000, and dozens of local, national, and international scientific presentations to diverse audiences.

Sarah is a graduate of Texas A&M University’s Ph.D. program in the Department of Horticultural Sciences. Her work is informed by a diverse background working internationally in coffee and wine, bolstered by an M.S. degree in chemistry from Tennessee Technological University. Her research uses participatory methods to investigate how farming and postharvest practices impact crop quality.

Sarah’s love and curiosity about food are deeply rooted in the food traditions of the American South: soul food. Bitter, smoky collard greens and her Grandmother’s buttery, crumbling cornbread are some of her favorites.