In August of this year, OSA’s Program Director Jared Zystro will join University of California as their new Horticulture and Specialty Crops Advisor for Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.
“We’re incredibly excited for Jared and this opportunity for him to bring the skills and knowledge he’s gained in his 17 years with OSA to his local farming and research community, and look forward to continued collaboration in his new role,” says Executive Director Cat McCluskey.
Organic Seed Alliance has launched the search for a Research & Education Director to lead the organization’s research and education portfolio. Learn more here.
Farewell letter from Jared to the OSA community
Dear OSA community,
After 17 years at Organic Seed Alliance, I have some news to share: I have accepted a position with the University of California as their new Horticulture and Specialty Crops Advisor for Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.
This is a tremendous opportunity. As Horticulture and Specialty Crops Advisor, I will get to take everything OSA has given me, including the research and extension skills, the relationships, and the participatory ethos, and apply it directly to the farms and food system in the rural community where I live. I am excited to bring some of OSA’s approaches to farmer-centered, community-driven work to the growers and agricultural communities here on the North Coast of California.
I love OSA. It is hard to imagine finding another group of people more passionate, more mission- and community-driven, and more genuinely caring than the ones I have been lucky to work alongside here. I see it in the work itself, and I hear it constantly in the feedback from the growers, researchers, and partners we serve.
I am proud of what we have built together over these years. The research and education, the policy work, the regional networks, the influence on the broader organic seed movement: it is a legacy I will carry with me. And I am even more excited about what comes next for OSA. With our Executive Director Cathleen McCluskey’s leadership, the strategic plan ahead, and the search for a new Research & Education Director getting underway, I see OSA only getting stronger and more impactful in the years to come.
I am not going far. I’ll be staying in the alliance, as a partner, a collaborator, and almost certainly as someone calling on OSA for advice and looking for ways we can team up from my new role.
Thank you, all of you.
– Jared
