Chelsea's passion for commercial agriculture revolves around the microbes that cause diseases in our corn and soybean crops. She grew up on a grain farm in Jo Daviess County and earned her B.S. and M.S. from the Department of Crop Sciences at University of Illinois and went on to earn her Ph.D. in Plant Pathology & Microbiology from Iowa State University. Following her Ph.D., Chelsea came back to her home state to serve with Illinois Extension as a commercial agriculture educator in August of 2019.
Chelsea also has experience with cover cropping systems, soil health practices, and pollinator youth education. She also works to get youth involved in agriculture by coordinating the Illinois Youth Crop Scouting Competition. But at the end of the day, she's a plant pathologist at heart. Have plant problems? Chelsea has experience in plant diagnostics and is happy to look at your crop issues or guide you on how to submit a sample to the University of Illinois Plant Clinic.
The Northwest Illinois Agriculture Research and Demonstration Center in Monmouth, Illinois is Chelsea's home base for Illinois Extension. From there, she lends a hand on the research farm when needed, helps conduct some research studies, and works on programming for Extension, including field days, workshops, the Crop Management Conference/CropFlix, and posts for the Hill & Furrow blog.