Kate McDonald Polakiewicz has joined Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Southwest New York Dairy, Livestock & Field Crops Program as its farm business management specialist.

She will be offering programming in financial management, production economics, business planning, and market analysis.

Polakiewicz is a production and extension systems specialist with 15 years of experience working in federal government, private sector, academic, and international settings. She comes to CCE from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) where she managed the Farmer-to-Farmer program, a longstanding agricultural extension program that provided short-term technical assistance from US-based farmers to other farmer communities abroad. She also managed large-scale agricultural research awards in horticulture, agronomy, aquaculture, and in scaling new technologies for practical farm use. Before USAID, Polakiewicz worked on agriculture programs with farmers while living in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Her work in research and extension also brought her to lead education on soil fertility and plant pathology in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. Polakiewicz holds a master’s degree from the University of California, Davis, and lives with her young family in Amherst.

Polakiewicz will spend her first few months with CCE becoming familiar with local farm operations, meeting and learning from farmers, and building her network. For more information, email kem348@cornell.edu or 716-640-0522.

The Southwest New York Dairy, Livestock & Field Crops Program is a partnership between Cornell University and the CCE Associations of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, and Steuben counties. Their team includes Amy Barkley, livestock management specialist and team leader (716-640-0844); Polakiewicz; Katelyn Miller, field crops and forage specialist (716-640-2047); and Katie Callero, dairy management specialist (607-422-6788).