Masha Vernik is a student and grower. As a graduate student at the University of Washington, she studies agricultural adaptation to climate change. Her learning extends beyond the classroom and into the field as an avid gardener and part-time farmworker. She is also involved with the Jewish Farmer Network in a cultural seed saving, sharing, and breeding project. In the past, she has done work to protect people and our planet from fossil fuel and factory farm polluters in her advocacy work as a student organizer and non-profit communications professional.