February 12, 2021

The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development is pleased to announce that Jason S. Entsminger will join the Center in a new assistant research professor position, effective February 15, 2021. In this role, Dr. Entsminger will lead the Center’s outreach-oriented activities primarily by fostering and strengthening the Center’s relationships with Northeast land grant universities and rural development partners, and by identifying and responding to opportunities for cross-state collaborations and sharing of programs. He also will contribute to the Center’s research program.

Entsminger’s primary research is in the fields of organizational economics and strategic management, including market structures, entrepreneurship and innovation, minority-owned enterprises, and collective strategies.

Prior to joining NERCRD, Entsminger served as a research associate and fellow with the McQuinn Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Missouri, where he received his doctoral degree in agricultural and applied economics in 2020. His dissertation research explored how we classify firms to think of markets as ecologies, using the lens of local and regional food systems. He brings to NERCRD multi-disciplinary and international experiences, which include projects related to agribusiness, food systems policy, agro-environmental management, community development, impact analysis, food security planning, and international trade.

“I am delighted that Jason is joining the Northeast Center,” noted Stephan Goetz, Director of the Center. “In addition to a rich set of prior development-related work experiences and a broad skill set that straddles economics and management, he brings with him state-of-the art training in organizational development theory. By filling this key new position, we expect to be able to significantly leverage the Center’s research portfolio while also strengthening ties to our collaborators in the region and beyond.”

Previously, Dr. Entsminger worked in positions focused on international trade, agricultural and rural community development, and agribusiness education. He has a strong connection to the land-grant mission of outreach. As a graduate student at the University of Florida, he served as a graduate assistant in UF/IFAS Extension, working with the Annie’s Project for Women in Agriculture and the Florida Market Maker initiative. While an undergraduate he worked on University of Nevada Cooperative Extension projects including youth development programming, sustainable agriculture, local and regional food systems, and innovation.

While at the University of Missouri, he was recognized with several awards and honors, including the Catalyst Award, for his service to LGBT+ populations in agriculture and rural communities, and the Mizzou 18 Award, which recognizes the top 18 graduate and professional students completing their degrees at the university each year.

Entsminger earned masters’ degrees in food and resource economics at the University of Florida and international rural community development from the European Union. He also holds three bachelor’s degrees, all with distinction, from the University of Nevada, Reno: a bachelor of science in agricultural and applied economics; a bachelor of arts in international affairs; and, a bachelor of arts in French language and literature.

In his free time, Entsminger enjoys hiking with his English Pointer and growing a seasonal garden. He and his partner hope to establish a heritage-based permaculture farm in his partner’s native New England. Dr. Entsminger himself is a native of Reno, Nevada, and for the last decade has lived and worked in Florida, Italy, France, Germany, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Missouri. He is looking forward to returning to the Northeast and serving its communities.