Candace Hulbert serves as a Program Coordinator for the
AI-LEAF Institute and the
Cornell Climate Smart Farming. Candace manages the development, integration, and evaluation of research, education and workforce development, broadening participation, and stakeholder engagement for the AI-LEAF Institute. In this role, she oversees program tracking and supports more than sixty faculty, ninety graduate students and postdocs, and thirty undergraduate students across seven partnering institutions: University of Minnesota, Cornell University, Colorado State University, Delaware State University, Purdue University, North Carolina State University, and the International Soil Reference and Information Center. Additionally, she coordinates strategic planning and implementation; communications; meeting and event coordination; and grant proposal development and administration.
In addition to her program management responsibilities, Candace leads the AI-LEAF Education and Workforce Development team, where she develops curriculum and outreach centered on climate-smart agriculture and forestry (CSAF), digital agriculture, and artificial intelligence in agriculture. Her work spans K–12, undergraduate, graduate, professional, and farmer education. She also coordinates the
AI-LEAF Undergraduate Scholars Program, an annual interdisciplinary program that prepares undergraduate students from AI-LEAF partner institutions to apply artificial intelligence to challenges in agriculture and forestry through coursework, research, and collaborative projects.
Candace's research focuses on co-development of AI decision support tools for agriculture and forestry through stakeholder engagement and user-centered design. Her work examines the adoption of digital agriculture, climate-smart agriculture and forestry, and artificial intelligence technologies. Additionally, Candace also evaluates the efficacy of AI-LEAF education and outreach. In addition, she investigates innovative approaches to strengthen multidisciplinary and multi-institutional education, collaboration, and team science, with the goal of increasing the impact of agricultural AI research and extension.
Candace is currently pursuing a PhD in Soil and Crop Science in the School of Integrative Plant Sciences at Cornell University with Dr. Johannes Lehmann. Candace earned a Master of Professional Studies in Natural Resources and the Environment from Cornell University in 2023 and dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and Political Science from the University of Michigan in 2020. From January 2021 through August 2023, she coordinated the Weather Ready Farms program at the University of Nebraska Extension, where she worked with agricultural stakeholders to advance climate resilience and disaster preparedness.
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