PhD, DirectorNorth Carolina AgrAbility Coordinator
North Carolina Agromedicine
Dr. Crystal Kyle is a U.S. Army veteran. She served ten years with the 1/159th Aviation regiment and 3/82nd and has deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq. Crystal is currently farming meat goats in North Carolina. She also is now working in the roles of AgroMedicine Coordinator and as the North Carolina AgrAbility Program Director to help farmers with challenges, farm safely and productively. Her emphasis is to develop, implement, sustain, and evaluate a comprehensive research based educational program agenda that meets the needs of limited-resource and socially-disadvantaged, small farmers. Her educational background is in Earth and Environmental Science, Agricultural Education, and Agricultural Occupational, Health, and Safety. Merging these disciplines, she conducts research and develops educational material for farmers and ranchers that will help to create or sustain farms across NC.
One of Crystal’s interest includes a research agenda that focuses on her peer military veterans that often are suffering from the effects of PTSD and Moral Injury. Her recent research, “The Formation of Cultural Capital using Symbolic Military Meanings of Objects and Self in an Adult Agricultural Education Program serving Military Veterans” won dissertation of the year at Virginia tech. Her overall goal is to provide quality programs through superior research and evaluations that will assist North Carolina farmers with the ability to continue farming safely and improve their quality of life as well as, address health and safety risk of farmers, their families, and their communities. Crystal holds a PhD in Agricultural Leadership and Community Education, a M.S. in Agricultural Education, and a BS in Earth and Environmental Science. She also, has minors in OSHA and Waste Management.
Websites:
National Center for Appropriate Technology – https://www.ncat.edu/North Carolina Agromedicine Institute – http://www.ncagromedicine.org/