Briana was born in California and raised in the Allegheny Plateau of Pennsylvania and the Finger Lakes region of New York. Her parents met while working at the Saratoga Community Garden, created by Alan Chadwick, who developed the Biodynamic French Intensive Method. Her father studied biodynamic farming and gardening at Emerson College in the 1970s and was an agricultural consultant in the Northeast for decades after earning his masters in agronomy from Penn State.
Being homeschooled through primary and secondary school gave Briana abundant time to explore her interests in social justice and environmental sustainability, and after participating in a July 2000 Witness For Peace delegation exploring NAFTA’s impact on the Mexican economy, environment and society, she moved to Washington DC as communications coordinator for human rights nonprofit SOA Watch. This was followed by several years working for a number of production companies in the Washington DC metro area, including Showcall and CrewWorks. Eventually Briana decided to return to her roots and pursue a career focused around sustaining and preserving the natural environment. After graduating from Tompkins Cortland Community College while working at GreenStar Natural Foods Cooperative Market, she transferred to Cornell and graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Science & Sustainability and a minor in Soil Science in December 2017.
Briana started working at the Cornell Soil Health Laboratory in June of 2017 and currently helps coordinate daily operations of the lab including processing in all the samples. She is cross-trained on nearly all of the tests we offer and is always excited to further develop her knowledge of soil health and sustainable agriculture. She is also a volunteer with the New York Master Forest Owner Program and the New York Master Naturalist Program. When not at the lab, she enjoys gardening, hiking, reading, and spending time with her partner, family and cats.
