Dr. Sarah Allard is an Assistant Project Scientist at the University of California San Diego, where she works in Dr. Jack Gilbert’s lab, housed between the Department of Pediatrics and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Sarah received her PhD in Plant Science from the University of Maryland and remained at UMD for a postdoctoral fellowship in the Maryland Institute of Applied Environmental Health. There, she studied crop, soil, and water microbiomes in the context of food safety and environmental change. Previously she worked at the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, where her research focused on on-farm food safety and biological control of foodborne pathogens. In her current role at UCSD, Sarah is exploring how microbiome research can be harnessed to support environmental restoration, safe and productive food systems, and the betterment of human health. She is also the Diversity Coordinator for the new Microbiome and Metagenomics Center at UCSD, part of NIH’s Nutrition for Precision Health program.