Richard Stup, Ph.D.
Agricultural Workforce Specialist
Cornell Cooperative Extension
164 Plant Science Building
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Cornell University
Office: 607-255-7890
rstup@cornell.edu | agworkforce.cals.cornell.edu
Richard Stup addresses challenges facing the agricultural industry through educational programs and applied research. He also provides leadership as a liaison between the agricultural industry and employment-focused regulatory authorities. His focus is on human resource management, enhancing employee engagement, regulatory compliance, and leadership development at the farm level.
Prior to joining Cornell University, Dr. Stup founded Ag Workforce Development, a firm focused on improving individual and team performance through organization development and technology solutions. He also served agriculture in the Farm Credit system as a branch manager and senior leader, gaining extensive experience leading teams in sales, credit, accounting and records, business consulting, risk management, and crop insurance. Earlier in his career, Richard was an Extension specialist with Penn State University, where he led the Dairy Alliance team and developed award-winning educational programming in human resource management. He earned his doctorate from Penn State in the field of Workforce Education and Development, including innovative research into the effects of human resource management on farm employee organizational commitment.
Jay Canzonier
Extension Support Specialist
Jay Canzonier brings to Ag Workforce Development extensive experience in produce farming, crop consulting, member relations, and in agribusiness. He and his family live in Jefferson County, NY where Canzonier is active in Farm Bureau, as a volunteer firefighter, and with his family. Canzonier’s work will focus on helping farms to better understand employee housing requirements and better manage facilities for the benefit of everyone involved. He will also promote and coordinate apprenticeship opportunities among farm employees, farm employer sponsors, training providers, and state funding agencies.
Andrea Durmiaki
Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development Administrative and Marketing Aide
Andrea has over a decade of experience working in higher education and engaged learning opportunities. Her marketing and communication skillset supports the Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development’s efforts in offering quality courses and programming. Andrea earned her BBA from Marywood University and is currently enrolled in Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Global Development MPS program.
Libby Eiholzer, M.P.S.
Dairy Technical Specialist
Libby Eiholzer, a former Extension bilingual dairy specialist, is an instructor in the Agricultural Supervisory Leadership certificate program. Libby grew up on a dairy farm in Central New York. After graduating from Cornell University with a major in Animal Science and a minor in Spanish, she spent two years in Guatemala on an assignment with the Peace Corps. Libby currently works for Cargill.
Elizabeth Higgins, M.S.
Ag Workforce Supervisory Leadership Certificate Program
Elizabeth Higgins is the Ag Business Management/Production Economics Extension Specialist with the Eastern New York Commercial Horticulture team, serving commercial fruit and vegetable producers in 17 counties in Eastern New York and an instructor in the Agricultural Supervisory Leadership certificate program. Her focus areas are risk management, farm business management and ag regulations and programs, with an emphasis on land use and labor. Liz has over 20 years of experience in agriculture, rural development and natural resource policy and research, with an emphasis on helping farmers and private landowners navigate complex local, federal and state land use regulations and policies. Her main focus has been on how policies and program influence farmer or land owner decision making. She has served as the agriculture program leader in both Sullivan and Ulster Counties. Liz received her BA in economics from Fairfield University and her MS in resource economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Mary Bess Lewis
Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development Extension Associate
Bess is a bilingual educator who focuses on developing Spanish-speaking and ESL agricultural supervisors and managers. Born in Maryland, but having grown up in Bolivia, South America, she understands the cultural differences and communication challenges that can exist in the workforce. After studying in the Universidad Evangélica Boliviana, she transferred to Greenville University in Greenville, IL where she completed her BA in Spanish with a minor in Communications and went on to complete a Master’s in Teaching. She and her family have managed their own grain farm and owned a fertilizer, chemical and seed business in Southern Illinois. They moved to New York in 2019 to support the farm businesses of this area. She is passionate about the success of the people that work on the farms that feed our world.
Kaitlyn Lutz, VMD, DABVP (Food Animal)
Bilingual Dairy Management Specialist
Kaitlyn is a bilingual dairy management specialist for the NWNY regional Extension team. She worked as a large animal veterinarian in both private practice and academia for over 10 years prior to joining Extension. During that time, she taught veterinary students dairy health management at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center as well as Colorado State University. She also spent three years working internationally with large dairy herds in New Zealand, Turkey and Uruguay. Kaitlyn received her BS in Animal Science from University of Delaware and her VMD from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners and has spent much time in practice focusing on employee education as a means to on-farm improvement.
Rachel McCarthy, M.P.S.
Supervisory Leadership Program Coordinator
Rachel McCarthy is a skilled science communicator, with over a decade of experience working in higher education and extension developing online and in-person learning programs. Rachel joined the Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development team in September 2020 to launch and manage the Agricultural Supervisory Leadership program. Previously Rachel served as the Training and Education Program Manager for the National Plant Diagnostic Network where she has developed and implemented training and outreach programs for two national invasive species early detection networks. She developed the Sentinel Plant Network’s train-the-trainer curriculum, including educator presentations, supporting print resources, eLearning modules, and training videos to support asynchronous learning. She also developed a variety of First Detector resources and training materials for traditional and online learning. Prior to her work with Cornell, Rachel led the landscape development program at Alfred State College, including instruction, program assessment, and curriculum development. McCarthy earned her BS and MPS from Cornell University in Landscape Architecture and Ornamental Horticulture.
Bob Milligan, Ph.D.
Cornell University Professor Emeritus
Bob is semi-retired and lives in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan area in Minnesota. He is an instructor in the Ag Workforce Development Agricultural Supervisory Leadership certificate program and a senior consultant with Dairy Strategies, LLC, a business management, leadership and human resource consulting business. At Cornell Bob was an award-winning instructor in the undergraduate business program. Bob is best known in extension for developing and leading PRO-DAIRY – a program that developed and taught leadership and management principles and concepts. Bob’s vision is to provide insight to managers by presenting complex human resource and business concepts in formats that are understandable and usable.
