Makeda Nurradin, though born in Columbus, Ohio, has a strong Alabama connection. Her grandmother was a sharecropper on a farm in Walker Springs, a rural area of Clarke County. She loved to tell Makeda about George Washington Carver, whom she met when he visited her elementary school. She also reminisced about the 4-H Club of which she was a member. These stories, coupled with working in the family garden, sparked in Nurradin, at an early age, a love for agriculture and a desire to study at Tuskegee University, which she did. Ms. Nurradin holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in plant and soil science specializing in environmental science from Tuskegee University. She worked with muscadines, blueberries and tomatoes just to name a few. All that hands-on farm work propelled her to pursue a Ph.D. in an ag-related field. Makeda is an agriculture education Ph. D candidate USDA fellow at Auburn University. She served president of the Graduate Student Council, vice-president of her local Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) chapter, and was on Auburn University president’s transition team. She volunteers in food pantries and community gardens. Makeda has presented her research at several conferences and won awards. Most recently, she became a published author. She is a member of North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) and Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE). Ms. Nurradin plans to work in academia or government upon completion of her doctoral work. There is so much confusion out there related to things like food labels and GMOs, and it’s all related to ag literacy, which is a major focus of her program.