INFAS Graduate Fellowships

Graduate student fellowships have been an integral part of INFAS’s commitment to supporting and cultivating future food systems leaders.

In 2022-23, INFAS partnered with the Carver Integrative Sustainability Center (CISC) of Tuskegee University to help lead a fellowship program dedicated to developing the next generation of food systems leaders. The Tuskegee-INFAS CISC Historically Black Colleges and Universities Fellowship Program (CHFP) is currently hosting our 4rd cohort of HBCU graduate fellows and honorees pursuing degrees in food systems, agriculture, natural resources and related fields. More information about the program and our current fellows and honorees is available here.  

Building on the success of CHFP, the 2025-26 academic year is the pilot year of our newest graduate fellow program, the INFAS Food Systems Fellowship (FSF). FSF is designed to broaden opportunities for under-represented graduate students training in food systems, agriculture, or related fields. FSF emphasizes mentorship, professional development, and network opportunities to advance the careers of emerging food systems leaders who are committed to ethically and equitably engaging communities in their present and/or future work. Meet our inaugural cohort of FSF-fellows here. 

History of INFAS's Graduate Fellowships  INFAS Food Systems Fellowship   Tuskegee-INFAS CISC HBCU Fellowship Program  

INFAS Graduate Fellowship History

Our recent fellowships were built on a foundational pilot led by INFAS in 2018–2019, which offered fellowships to three graduate students studying food systems at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Spearheaded by Dr. Joanna Friesner, the pilot program provided stipends and paired each fellow with a faculty mentor from the INFAS network to support their academic and professional development.

The inaugural fellows were:

• Kimberly Carr, MPH – PhD Candidate in Integrative Biosciences at Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama.
  Research project: Health Disparities, Food Insecurity, and Environmental Injustice among Black Adults in the United States.
• Monyai Chavers – Master of Arts Candidate in Political Science at Howard University, Washington, D.C.
  Research project: The Demand for Food and Land: Views from Liberia.
• Lindsey Lunsford, MEM – PhD Candidate in Integrative Public Policy and Development at Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama.
  Research project: Telling the Story of the Alabama Black Belt’s Food Systems.

All three fellows shared their work during a July 2019 webinar. 

IAC-INFAS Tribal Fellowship Program (2020–2023)

The IAC-INFAS Tribal Fellowship Program (ITFP) was a collaborative effort between the Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC) and INFAS to develop the next generation of Native Ag Professionals. Led by INFAS chair at the time, Christine Porter, the fellowship was piloted in 2020 and supported 11 Native American graduate students studying in areas related to Tribal food systems, regenerative agriculture, natural resources, and/or nutrition. Fellows received a stipend, professional development opportunities and were matched with a faculty and/or community mentor during their year in the program. Running from 2020-2023, the ITFP hosted 3 cohorts and a total of 20 fellows. 

More details on the history of the IAC-INFAS Tribal Fellowship Program are available here.