Melissa Bell

As the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) Field Research Liaison I organize meetings and lead efforts to support field researchers communicate their research and gather their research impacts for CEFS communications and leadership. I engage undergraduate students, extension agents, community members and non-research members of CEFS in our research efforts.

I act as a subject matter expert when appropriate (cover crops, soil health) for on-farm educational or community speaking events. I lead the development of a new soil sampling and storage protocol for our long-term, large-scale Farming Systems Research Unit at CEFS and am on a team that is developing a database for the long-term storage of our collaborative data. I collaborate with a Durham extension agent in a "lunch and learn" extension webinar series throughout the year. These are successful in engaging diverse and new audiences with anywhere from 80-200 participants per webinar.

• Communicated with sales team members about quality issues.
• Inspected quality of products, taking note of functionality, appearance and other specifications.
• Inspected incoming and outgoing materials for accuracy and quality.
• Communicated with farmers to help them meet specifications, identify issue roots and rectify problems.