CV
Education
PhD, Agroecology | University of California, Berkeley
Dissertation: Adapting agroecosystems to water scarcity: Dry farming and crop rotation as transitions to diversified farming systems in California and the US Midwest
Advisor: Timothy Bowles
MS in Agriculture, Food and the Environment | Tufts University, Friedman School of Nutrition
BA in Biology | Swarthmore College
Minor: Psychology
Research Experience
2024 - present | Project Scientist | UC Berkeley, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
2023 - 2024 | Postdoc, Farm to School Evaluation Team | UC Berkeley, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
2018 - 2023 | Doctoral Research, Laboratory of Timothy Bowles | UC Berkeley, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
2018 | Research Assistant, AgroServ Project with Avery Cohn | Tufts University
Quantifying the climate impacts of deforestation caused by Brazilian agriculture and cattle ranching
2017 | Farm Intern and Resident Ecologist | Silver Leaf Farms, Corrales NM
2014 | Research Assistant | Center for AIDS Research at UW, Seattle WA
2012 | Field Assistant | Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador, Yasuni National Park
2011 | Study Manager | Strauman Lab, Duke University, Durham, NC
Grants
2025-2028 | Establishing the Pacific Coast Dry Farming Accelerator Program. Western SARE Local Education and Demonstration Grant. $60,000
2024-2026 | CSWA/DWR Dry Farming Project. $160,000
2021-2024 | Hopes of dry land: Managing soils to improve fruit yield and quality in dry farm tomatoes. Western SARE Graduate Student Grant. $25,243
2019 | ESPM Starter grant for summer research. $5,000
Honors and Awards
2023 | Outstanding GSI Award Recognizing exceptional achievements as a teacher
2018-2024 | Berkeley Fellow Multi-year fellowship awarded to outstanding applicants to doctoral programs in all fields
2018-2020 | NSF Research Trainee in Data Science for the 21st Century Interdisciplinary graduate training program at UC Berkeley at the interface of data, social and natural sciences
2016-2018 | Ellen H. Block Scholar Full scholarship to the Friedman School of Nutrition
2013 | Leo M Leva Award For outstanding biology undergraduates at Swarthmore College who show unusual promise in the field
Reports
2025 | Yvonne Socolar and Timothy Bowles. Producers’ Use of Climate Smart Agricultural Practices in the California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program. Link
2025 | Yvonne Socolar and Timothy Bowles. Does Farm to School Advance California’s Nature-Based Solutions Targets?. Link
2024 | Yvonne Socolar, Maria Villalpando Paez, and Timothy Bowles. California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program 2024 Environmental Brief. Link
Presentations
Organized
2023 | Dry Farm Symposium. Center for Agroecology, UC Santa Cruz
2023 | Women for the Land Dry Farm Circle. Brisa Ranch, Pescadero, CA
Invited
2026 | Yvonne Socolar. Soil as Reservoir: Rethinking water in dry farm tomato production. 2026 CA/NV Chapter SWCS Conference
2026 | Yvonne Socolar. Dry Farm Tomato Production: Farming without irrigation on California’s Central Coast. UCCE Small Farm Program Organic Seminar Series
2025 | Yvonne Socolar, Zureal Bernier, and Caiti Hachmyer. Dry Farming Techniques. Community Alliance with Family Farmers Small Farms Conference
2024 | Yvonne Socolar, Megan Resler. Farm to School Eval Team - Farmers/Ranchers Webinar. Berkeley Food Institute, UC Berkeley
2024 | Yvonne Socolar and Lauren Pesch. Dry farm practice and research in Napa County. Napa County Watershed Symposium, Napa, CA
2024 | Yvonne Socolar. Key findings from dry farming research. Community Alliance with Family Farmers Summer Soiree, Guinda, CA
2024 | Yvonne Socolar. Key findings from dry farming research. UCCE Dry farming strategies workshop, Marin County, CA
2024 | Yvonne Socolar. In deep water: Management learnings from diversified dry farm tomato systems. Community Alliance with Family Farmers Small Farms Conference
2023 | Yvonne Socolar. Going beyond surface level: How nutrient depth impacts fruit yield and quality in dry farmed tomato systems. Dry Farming Collaborative Winter Convening, Corvallis, CA
2022 | Yvonne Socolar, Timothy Bowles, Janina Dierks. Managing mycorrhizas on your farm. Lunchtime Organic Agriculture Seminar Series for Growers
2021 | Yvonne Socolar. Input intensive or ecologically extensive? Framing microbial inoculants’ role in diversified farming systems. Ecological Society of America, San Diego, CA
Contributed
2023 | Yvonne Socolar, Jared Zystro, Jim Leap, Veronica Mazariegos-Anastassiou, Amy and Jacques Neukom, Blake Richard, and Silas Sarvinski. Dry farming Practices and Perspectives. Community Alliance with Family Farmers Small Farms Conference
2022 | Yvonne Socolar, Timothy Bowles, Janina Dierks, Margaret Lloyd. Managing mycorrhizas on your farm. Community Alliance with Family Farmers Small Farms Conference
2019 | Yvonne Socolar, Benjamin R Goldstein, Perry de Valpine, and Timothy M Bowles. Crop temporal diversity is negatively associated with inherent soil quality across the Central U.S.: A novel high-resolution spatial analysis. Ecological Society of America, Louisville, KY
2019 | Yvonne Socolar, Benjamin R Goldstein, Perry de Valpine, and Timothy M Bowles. Tradeoffs between soil quality and soil health: A novel high-resolution spatial analysis of crop temporal diversity and its landscape determinants in the central U.S.. Soil Health Institute Annual Meeting, Sacramento, CA
2018 | Yvonne Socolar. Minding the Gap: Fertilizer Intensification as a Contributor to Yield Gaps. Tufts GIS Poster Expo, Medford, MA
2017 | Yvonne Socolar. The Buzz About White Nose Syndrome: Risks to Native Bee Populations Following a PNW WNS Outbreak. Tufts GIS Poster Expo, Medford, MA
Teaching
Co-Instructor
2025 | Agroecology and Human Health and Wellbeing, UC Berkeley. Co-instructor with Timothy Bowles
Guest Lectures
2023, 2024 | Soil health, agriculture, and climate change. Transforming the Food System, UC Berkeley
2023, 2024 | Agroecological research on water resilience in CA. Agricultural Ecology, UC Berkeley
2022 | Agroecological measurements. Graduate measurements seminar, UC Berkeley
2019-2022 | Agriculture and Public Health. Agricultural Ecology, UC Berkeley
Teaching Assistant
2019-2022 | Agricultural Ecology, UC Berkeley
2018 | Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, Tufts University
2017 | Statistical Methods for Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University
Curriculum Development
2019 | Developed teacher training exploring experiential learning about garden ecology and sustainability for the Alameda Elementary Environmental Literacy project
2017 | Proposed, developed curriculum for, and taught MATH ROCKS, a graduate seminar exploring basic statistical concepts and their application in scientific literature, for the Friedman School of Nutrition
Professional Service
Ongoing | Reviewer for Ecological Economics, Geoderma, HortTechnology, Nature Food, Science of the Total Environment
2021-2025 | Manager of the Diversified Farming Systems (dfs) listserv
2022 | Hiring committee for departmental Events Specialist, Environmental Science Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley
