Kathryn J. Draeger

Kathryn Draeger is Statewide Director for the U of M Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships and adjunct professor of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. She currently leads several grant-funded projects, including one for climate change convenings in Greater Minnesota, another on local foods and rural grocery stores, and Deep Winter Greenhouse efforts. In 2014, she spearheaded Minnesota's Extension Reconsidered effort as part of a 13-state project to examine extension's past, current and future role within American society. She has been a Bush Leadership Fellowship and a MacArthur Scholar. She served as an Environmental Protection Commissioner in Iowa and was appointed to the Governor's Roundtable for Sustainable Development in Minnesota. Before joining the U she founded two successful corporations Sustainability International, Inc. and Environmental Ground, Inc. In 2007, Kathy and her family moved to rural Big Stone County MN to live and farm sustainably. She serves as the Governor appointed Agricultural Representative and Vice Chair of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency board. Kathy holds a doctorate in water resources and master's in Soil Science from the University of Minnesota.