Jared Buono, executive director for Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) of Ulster County, has been named director of the Cornell Hudson Valley Research Laboratory (CHVRL) in Highland, New York, effective Oct. 17.

The CHVRL, founded in 1923, is a successful public-private partnership between Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and local fruit and vegetable farmer members of the nonprofit Farmer’s Alliance for Research and Management (F.A.R.M.). As a satellite New York state agricultural experiment station, CHRVL is focused on timely research and technological innovations to help Hudson Valley farmers thrive.

Buono, who grew up on his family’s farm in nearby Saugerties, New York, has been working with farmers and doing extension work for most of his life. After completing his doctorate in hydrology at the University of Arizona, Buono spent the next decade in India – leading NGOs, government and community partners in building collaborative watershed management programs in rural areas. In 2017, he returned to the U.S. to take his role with CCE Ulster. There, Buono worked with extension educators, volunteers and local partners to diversify funding and expand programming, which impacts 20,000 residents annually.

Read more in the CALS Newsroom.