Angela Brekalo

Angela Brekalo (she/they) grew up in Ohio near Cleveland and is considered much of the state’s home, from the waters of Lake Erie to the foothills of Appalachia. She went to school in Columbus, where she earned a B.S. in Evolution & Ecology and a minor in Neuroscience at Ohio State University, but also enjoyed studying the social sciences and humanities as much as the biological sciences, so she took every opportunity to take history and creative writing courses as well. Angela started college as a neuroscience major and spent a year and a half in a neuroscience/microbiology lab.  She says, “The research subject was wildly different from what I work on at The Land Institute (neurons vs. fungi), but many of the lab skills I developed in Columbus are useful today.” As a resident, she worked on our Crop Protection Genetics team with Dr. Kathryn Turner, where she researched plant diseases, like silphium rust, and breeding for resistance.