Eliza Pessereau is a University of Extension Horticulture Educator serving Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair counties. She provides horticulture-related educational opportunities for community members, Master Gardener and Master Naturalist volunteers, non-profits, and businesses.

Pessereau’s primary focuses are supporting commercial fruit and vegetable producers and home gardeners with integrated insect pest and pollinator management, and bringing gardening education to renters and community gardens.

Pessereau received her Master’s of Science in Entomology and Agroecology from University of Wisconsin –Madison in 2024, and her Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Geography in 2019 from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her Master’s research focused on the use of a flowering cover crops to support native pollinators in annual cropping systems. Prior to graduate school, Pessereau also worked with rice farmers and beekeepers in West Africa through the Womadix Foundation and the Peace Corps.