Our Team
Faculty & Staff
Dr. Ken Mix, Program Director
Ken is Associate Professor of Soil and Crop Science in the Department of Agricultural Sciences. His research areas are regenerative agriculture, soil health, and entomology, and climate and water resources. He oversees several projects with graduate students; regenerative grazing, biological seed coating for enhanced germination in crops and grassland species, and social aspects of agriculture that create barriers and bridges to regenerative agriculture practices and achieving soil health metrics. He is PI for several USDA grants, all of them associated with SPI. He is co-owner of SKM Homestead, a 50 acre mixed livestock, apiculture and produce farm. He also had a 20 acre vegetable farm in central Indiana in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Contact: kenmix@txstate.edu
Angela McDermott, Grant Director
Angela McDermott is the Grant Director for Small Producers Initiative. She is a Grenadian American and has worked for non-profit farms for 10 years in San Antonio, TX and Atlanta, GA, including the San Antonio Food Bank and Global Growers Network. She is passionate about helping people to grow food for themselves, composting, food ways and sharing that history with her kiddo.
Contact: smallproducers@txstate.edu
Hunter Francis, Project Coordinator
Hunter serves as a Project Coordinator for SPI with experience facilitating a wide-range of professional development activities in organic and regenerative agriculture. He received his M.S. in Agriculture with a specialization in Soil Science from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where he served as a lecturer and helped to establish and direct the Center for Sustainability in the College of Agriculture. Early in his career, he worked in the natural foods industry, and he has enjoyed a life-long passion for good food and the great outdoors.
Contact: chz18@txstate.edu
Kyle Krebs, Lab Services Technician
Kyle obtained an MS in Aquatic Resources from Texas State in 2022 where he focused on methylmercury accumulation in ducks and sharks. He has undergraduate experience in soil microbiology and ecology and brings with him extensive knowledge of technology coupled with a passion for environmental awareness and conservation. Kyle is getting the Soil, Plant, Animal Health Research Continuum (SPAHRC) Laboratory up and running on campus.
Contact: krk102@txstate.edu
Dr. Pratheesh Omana Sudhakaran, Co-PI (SPI-AMP)
Pratheesh Sudhakaran is an applied economist with more than 12 years of experience in academic and industry in the fields of fisheries, aquaculture, natural resources, and agriculture. Some of the Dr. Sudhakaran’s current research interests include aquaculture and fisheries economics, food safety economics, agricultural economics, natural resource economics and experimental economics. He and his graduate students are currently involved in research projects looking at the economics of regenerative agriculture, and willingness to pay for food safety. He is actively involved in several Federal agency funded research projects spanning from national to international agricultural issues.
Contact: pratheesh81@txstate.edu