Richard Goe, Professor of Sociology at Kansas State University, has expertise in research methodology for social science research and extensive experience in conducting research on rural communities and labor markets.  The latter has involved the use of survey research and case studies of rural communities involving focus groups and personal interviews with government and business leaders. Goe will be the primary PI responsible for survey development, in addition to collaborating on all other aspects of the project.

Bill Hargrove has been the Director of KCARE for 8 years. Originally from Texas, he earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Baylor University; master’s degree in soil science from Texas A&M.; and Ph.D. in Soil Science, from the University of Kentucky. Prior to Kansas State University, he was employed at the University of Georgia. As director of KCARE, he manages a portfolio of grants and state supported projects totaling approximately $5 million. He is a liaison on environmental issues for K-State Research and Extension with the state legislature and the governor’s office, and coordinates environmental activities for K-State Research and Extension.

Dan Kahl is the Research and Extension Liaison with the CECD. Dan served nine years as the Executive Director of a not-for-profit organization, and as Director of a nationally funded community service program before coming to K-State. In 1998 he joined K-State Research and Extension to co-coordinate the Kansas Environmental Leadership Program. Since 2002, Dan has been the Extension Director of the Kansas PRIDE program, a partnership between the Kansas Department of Commerce, and K-State Extension. Through the PRIDE program he works with volunteer teams in communities across the state dedicated to community improvement. Dan is an Education graduate of Iowa State University, and has a Masters in Leadership Studies from FHSU.

László J. Kulcsár is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Director of the Kansas Population Center. His field of expertise is social demography and regional development, with a particular emphasis on migration and spatial inequalities. He does research on population dynamics and social change in rural areas, including aging and the impact of natural resource extraction on rural demography. Dr. Kulcsár participates in the NSF EPSCOR eco-forecasting research program which ties population projections to system-level ecological and land use change and the transforming rural landscape in the Great Plains. He also studies the social and demographic transformation of Eastern Europe from a historical perspective, but with a particular emphasis on the post-socialist period. Dr. Kulcsár teaches courses on social and spatial inequalities, population dynamics, immigration and sociological methodology.

Gerad Middendorf is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Kansas State University. His research interests are in the areas of rural and environmental studies, the sociology of agriculture and food, international development, and science and technology studies. He and colleagues recently published / The Fight Over Food / , a book on how producers, consumers and activists are challenging the global food system (Penn State University Press, 2008). Other recent work has included a study of information needs of organic growers and retailers, and a study of agrarian landscape transition in eastern Kansas. He has also published a number of articles and chapters on the implications of agricultural biotechnologies and on agricultural science and technology policy. Middendorf is currently engaged in projects on the role of Latinos in agriculture in the Great Plains, and on biofuels development in the Midwest.

Theresa Selfa, Assistant Professor of Sociology, has expertise in rural development, and environmental, agricultural and development sociology, with research experience in Brazil, Philippines, Europe and the US. She was a post-doctoral associate in Washington State on a project examining alternative agriculture and food systems. Recently she has conducted survey, focus group and in-depth interview research examining farmers’ environmental attitudes and behaviors toward land management in Devon, England and in Kansas. She is currently working as the lead social scientist on an interdisciplinary water quality project, funded by CSREES/USDA Conservation Effects Assessment Program, assessing impacts of farmers’ management behavior on water quality in an agricultural watershed in Central Kansas. Her work has been published in Society and Natural Resources, Environment and Planning A, and Agriculture and Human Values.

Cindy Shuman is the Lead Evaluator for the Office of Educational Innovation and Evaluation. On staff since 2000, when the office was founded, she is responsible for developing and implementing program evaluations for both university and statewide programs. These activities include evaluation design, development of data collection instruments and protocols, survey development and administration, field data collection, analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, and the preparation of written reports and summaries of evaluation findings for various audiences.   In the capacity of Lead Evaluator, she is responsible for working collaboratively with the Director and Assistant Director to establish office guidelines, contributing to efforts in proposal development and client outreach, and serving as a resource in evaluation design and methodology for other staff members. In addition, these duties include supervising graduate assistants, assisting in the training and support of project staff, and representing the evaluation capabilities of the organization at external meetings and conferences. Dr. Shuman received her Ph.D. in Adult Education from Kansas State University. Her primary interests are in program evaluation and faculty development in higher education. She is a member of the American Evaluation Association.

Mike Woolverton received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. After serving on the faculties of The Ohio State University and Arizona State University, he became the Continental Grain Professor of Agribusiness at the American Graduate School of International Management, where he now has emeritus status. Woolverton is currently Professor and Extension specialist at Kansas State University with responsibilities that include grain marketing economics. Professor Woolverton has written five textbooks, the most recent of which is Agribusiness Marketing: The Management Perspective, and was the founder and long-time Managing Editor of Agribusiness: An International Journal. He was a member of the founding board of directors of the International Agribusiness Management Association, now called the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association. Woolverton was named an Association Fellow in 2003. Woolverton’s research interests include structure and performance of the grain and oilseed marketing system, overseas market development and commodity promotion, risk management in marketing and purchasing grain and oilseed commodities, agribusiness marketing management, and strategic leadership. He has had extensive international experience including long-term assignments in Europe and Asia and short-term executive education programs in Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, and North Africa.

Albert Iaroi received his undergraduate degree in Journalism and his M.A. in Contemporary Eastern-European History from the Babes-Bolyai University in Romania. An ethnic Hungarian, he grew up in the multicultural environment of Transylvania where he witnessed both the collapse of communism and the post-socialist transformations, including the EU accession of his country. His research interests are comparative rural development in the US and Europe, and social change in Eastern Europe.

Uma Sarmistha is a graduate student at Kansas State University and she is involved as a Graduate Research Assistant with the project on “Socioeconomic Impacts of the Biofuels Revolution”. She has completed her masters in Economics from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, India in 2004. She has three years of research experience in different areas of social sciences. While working for Institute of Human Development, Delhi, India, she was involved with the projects on rural development, employment and social security in informal sector, Gender and sex selective abortion, migrant workers and information communication and technology for development. Her area of interest lies in the field of rural development and inequality in general and gender discrimination in particular.