Course Instructors

Martin Bailkey, PhD, Special Projects Manager, Rooted

Pronouns: he/him/his

Martin Bailkey is Special Project Manager on the Promise of Urban Agriculture project, a joint partnership and project of Cornell Small Farms Program, Rooted, and the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. Martin has worked in urban agriculture for over 25 years, mostly in front of a computer screen rather than in the field. He has been connected for years and in various ways with the groupings and organizations that eventually became Rooted. Martin is co-editor, with Steve Ventura, of Good Food, Strong Communities: Promoting Social Justice through Local and Regional Food Systems (University of Iowa Press, 2017), and has published many articles on urban agriculture. Along with Marcia Caton Campbell and Kimberley Hodgson, Martin wrote Urban Agriculture: Growing Healthy, Sustainable Places (2011) for the American Planning Association’s Planning Advisory Service report series. Previously, he served as a member of the Madison Food Policy Council. Martin received his PhD in urban and regional planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Yolanda Gonzalez, Urban Agriculture Specialist, Cornell Cooperative Extension

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Yolanda Gonzalez is an Urban Agriculture Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension Harvest NY. She holds a dual degree in Master of Science in Environmental and Community Land Planning from SUNY ESF and Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies and Spanish Literature from SUNY Geneseo. Yolanda's most recent experience as an Excelsior Fellow at the NYS Office of General Services in the Organizational and Workforce Development Unit has given her process improvement skills that will help urban growers maximize efficiency and profitability in limited spaces. Her background is mostly in small-scale production, working on a number of small farms in Maine, Pennsylvania, and Long Island.

Anu Rangarajan, Director, Cornell Small Farms Program 

Pronouns: she/her/hers 

Anu spent her childhood tending a garden in a suburb of Detroit and learned about vegetable growing from a WWII veteran. She pursued this love of plants and soil at Michigan State University, majoring in Horticulture, followed by a Masters at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, in controlled environment agriculture and a PhD in vegetable production and physiology. She joined the faculty of Horticulture at Cornell University in 1996, as the Statewide Fresh Market Vegetable Specialist. Her research focuses on innovative crop and soil management that balances triple-bottom line goals for growers and society. In 2004, she was appointed director the Cornell Small Farms Program, which has a mission to support and uplift small-scale farming as a dignified, viable and meaningful livelihood by providing intentional, innovative and inclusive services. In 2013, the program started creating materials focused operating a small farm in urban spaces, which resulted in the collaboration that has created the ‘Promise of Urban Agriculture’ study and these courses.