Meet the Team

Director

Dr. Roger Norton

Dr. Roger Norton is a Research Professor in Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University and is the Director of the Center for Coffee Research & Education at the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture. Formerly a World Bank Research Director, Full Professor at the University of New Mexico and Visiting Professor at Oklahoma State University, the Universities of Rome and Naples, and the business school INCAE in Costa Rica, Dr. Norton has lived for 23 years in developing countries and has a wealth of research and policy experience in nations all over the world. Dr. Norton continues to serve as the interim Regional Director of Latin America and the Caribbean at the Borlaug Institute, facilitating international partnerships and projects for agriculture, including a successful coffee project for three Central American countries, and carrying out research on agricultural competitiveness. He has published numerous books and papers on mathematical modeling for agriculture and agricultural policy, and his book Agricultural Development Policy: Concepts and Experiences (Wiley & Sons 2004) has been issued in Spanish, French, and Arabic.

Assistant Director

Eric Brenner

Researcher

Dr. Libo Shan

Researcher

Dr. Fausto Andrés Ortiz-Morea

Lecturer

Nadav Mer

Nadav Mer joined the Department of Agricultural Economics as a lecturer in Spring 2022. Prior to joining the department, Mer was the founder and owner of Morning Bell Coffee Roasters in Ames, Iowa. Morning Bell Coffee Roasters is recognized as the first workers cooperative in Iowa, and Mer was directly involved in that conversion project. He is a serial entrepreneur who has started, grown, and sold businesses in the IT and specialty coffee industries. Mer has been giving guest lectures, talks, and workshops about entrepreneurship and specialty coffee at the college and community level since 2012. Mer also currently volunteers as an instructor with Inmates to Entrepreneurs, a national organization preparing currently and formerly incarcerated individuals to meet their business start-up goals.