Jessica Dery

Assistant In Extension - Water Quality and Food Safety

Jessica Dery is an Assistant in Extension for Dr. Channah Rock at the Maricopa Agricultural Center. Her role involves community and stakeholder outreach and education with the goal of improving awareness of the impact of water quality on food safety as well as the application of water reuse in the southwest. Jessica earned her B.S. in Microbiology from Arizona State University, where she focused on water and soil microbial ecology. She has previously held positions at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Her positions in the Botanical Gardens included cataloging the herbarium collections, fieldwork, and helping to conduct research in the molecular genetics lab where she concentrated on genetic variation within plant species growing in different ecological niches. At the USDA, she conducted fieldwork for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, surveying Arizona for the Asian Citrus Psyllid and Karnal Blunt.