Research Branch Biographies

Skye Wills

Skye is the national leader for soil research at the National Soil Survey Center (NSSC). The NSSC provides national leadership to NRCS's soils program and the National Cooperative Soil Survey Program. The Research Branch develops new assessment techniques in dynamic soil survey, focusing on soil health, soil moisture,  and other properties and interpretations that change over time. Skye’s previous work includes the Rapid Carbon Assessment project (a national soil carbon inventory) and the Dynamic Soil Properties for Soil Health project (cooperators using soil survey and ecological sites to organize soil health measurements). She’s a proponent of reproducibility and open science to maximize the impact and accessibility of soil data. Skye has degrees from Kansas State University in Agronomy and Iowa State University in Soil Morphology and Genesis and has worked in agronomy, semi-arid rangelands, and tidal marshes across the country.

Tiffany Carter

Tiffany is the assistant national leader for soils research at the National Soil Survey Center. She is originally from Kansas City, MO. Tiffany has a B.S. in Biology from Lincoln University (MO), a M.S. in Grain Science from Kansas State University, and a Ph.D. in Agronomy from Kansas State University. Her dissertation research focused on understanding the soil and microbial responses to changes in land management and precipitation manipulation. Prior to starting her position with the NRCS, she was an assistant professor at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN. Her research area is soil biology. Tiffany’s current research interests include soil biodiversity, soil ecology, dynamic soil properties, and linking soil health to biological indicators. In addition, she is also interested in soil biological method development and improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in agriculture. In her spare time, Tiffany enjoys playing the guitar, playing tug of war with her puppy, collecting sneakers, and spending time with her two daughters.

Ekundayo Adeleke

Ekundayo joined the National Soil Survey Center (NSSC) as a natural resource specialist in 2020. Ekundayo’s previous research experience includes combining soil biogeochemistry and nutrient management to improve ecosystem services on agricultural land. Since joining the Research Branch of the NSSC, he has been involved in the Dynamic Soil Properties for Soil Health Project, development of methods for field offices, and management of rapid carbon assessment product. Ekundayo’s research interest includes understanding the role of pedodiversity in alpha and beta biodiversity, soil health indicators, and interpretation of these indicators as a function of land management decisions. Other interests include leveraging geospatial techniques and methodologies to create spatial variabilities and temporal changes of soil properties. Ekundayo holds a Ph.D. from Tennessee State University.

Katy Dynarski

Katy is a research soil scientist at the National Soil Survey Center, though she is physically based in Burlington, VT. Her research focuses on soil carbon dynamics, soil health, and soil biogeochemistry. She is particularly interested in understanding how carbon dynamics are impacted by land management and how these effects manifest across various spatial and temporal scales. Katy's work also addresses connections between carbon cycling processes and soil health metrics and development of regionally relevant soil health indicators and benchmarks.

Ryan Hodges

Ryan joined the Research Branch at the National Soil Survey Center as a research soil scientist in May of 2023. Prior to joining the NRCS, he entered the USDA as a Presidential Management Fellow working in the Office of Energy and Environmental Policy on climate change programs. His research interests include pedology, taxonomy, tropical and volcanic ash-influenced soils and their mineralogy, spatial statistics, and GIS. Dr. Hodges is a veteran of the U.S. Navy, having served as a tactical helicopter aircrewman and aviation rescue swimmer aboard the MH-60R from 2010 to 2016. He holds both an M.S. and Ph.D. in Soil Science from Utah State University and a B.S. in Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Dr. Hodges hails from the Aloha State and enjoys learning Hawaiian, weight training, and spending quality time with his family.

Jon Maynard

Jon is a research soil scientist at the National Soil Survey Center, where he works at the interface between soil and ecological sciences and advanced data analytics to generate science-based solutions for sustainable land management. Jon is a broadly trained soil scientist with expertise in pedology, biogeochemistry, remote sensing, and applied predictive modeling. His current research focuses on leveraging mid-infrared spectroscopy for soil surveys, enhancing predictive mapping of ecological sites and states, promoting citizen soil science, and hyper-localizing soil information for precision management applications. He holds a Ph.D. is Soils and Biogeochemistry and a M.S. in Soil Science from the University of California, Davis.

Travis Nauman

Travis joined the National Soil Survey Center as a research soil scientist in April of 2022. He has worked in various roles with the National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) for over 15 years. His research examines the role of soils in earth system responses to different drivers of change using geospatial tools, machine learning, modeling, and applied pedology. In efforts that helped form and guide the NCSS digital soil mapping focus team, he has helped develop numerous new raster soils and ecological mapping datasets to help meet needs of land management decision makers and modelers. He has also worked in development of natural resources inventory and monitoring programs and related tools with a wide variety of public, private, and academic entities to help better integrate objective science into land management frameworks. His other professional interests include pedological processes, wind and water erosion, salinity, water security, climate change, dust emissions, and ecosystem potential frameworks.

Amanda Pennino

Amanda is a research soil scientist at the National Soil Survey Center, with a research emphasis on characterizing and understanding the soil hydroclimate, especially in forested landscapes. Her undergraduate training was strongly rooted in pedology, which during graduate school aided her in research focused on how soil morphology and chemistry is influenced by dynamic hydrologic processes. For this reason, the term hydropedology best characterizes her work. Amanda’s work with the NRCS is based on using soils data with a temporal component (moisture, infiltration, temperature, etc.) to better understand ecosystem processes in a changing environment.

Phil Rivara

Phil is serving on a detail as a data manager for the National Soil Survey Center, Research Branch. He assists with data planning, collection, management and delivery for Research Branch projects. His normal duties are as the assistant state conservationist for management and strategy in Madison, WI. Phil has prior NRCS experience as a management analyst in Madison, WI, as a soil conservationist in Rutland, VT, and as a Pathways intern in Murphysboro, IL.

Erin Rooney

Erin is a research soil scientist at the National Soil Survey Center and physically based in Knoxville, TN, with prior work ranging from tundra and boreal ecosystems in Alaska to semi-arid wheat fields in Wyoming. Erin has experience collaborating with the national laboratory system, including the user facility at Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory’s (EMSL) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She is currently involved with method development for designing 2-D terraform pore networks from 3-D X-ray computed tomography scans with EMSL staff to measure how physical disturbance at the pore scale influences water flow, mineral-organic matter interactions, and nutrient availability. Erin’s research interests include cross-scale soil disturbance, the intersection of soil physical structure and organization with biogeochemical processes, redox conditions across saturation gradients, and soil climate monitoring including NRCS Soil Climate Analysis Network and soil climate research stations. Erin’s future goals include engaging in interagency efforts to predict freeze-thaw disturbance, permafrost thaw dynamics, and soil transformations in Alaska as well as relationships between soil water and carbon in disturbed forests in Alaska and North Carolina.