Sharon has fond memories of her time at UMM, especially of the faculty who invested in her personally and were instrumental in laying a firm foundation for her future. Sharon grew up on a crop and livestock farm with an affinity for agriculture and science, but knew not how to merge those interests except through engineering. She entered UMM as an undeclared major, intending to transfer to the Twin Cities after two years. She was introduced by outstandingly compassionate and dedicated faculty to opportunities she never knew existed for regular people, like graduate school and a career in research. She completed an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program project evaluating the herbicide atrazine in water, and was hooked. Sharon went on to earn her PhD from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, then joined the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service.
Sharon is a career USDA-ARS Research Soil Scientist, having served the agency in Riverside, California and Morris, Minnesota before becoming Research Leader of the North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Brookings, SD. There, Sharon leads a team of scientists that provides critical information for the development of agricultural management practices that protect environmental quality and maintain crop productivity. Sharon is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America (2013), the American Society of Agronomy, (2013), the Agrochemicals Division of the American Chemical Society (2016), and the American Chemical Society (2021).
