I have a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding, Genetics & Biotechnology from the Department of Horticulture at Michigan State University. Currently I work at the Savanna Institute as a tree crop breeder.

B.S. Biological Sciences, Cornell University, graduated May 2015

Ph.D. Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology, Michigan State University, defended November 2023

May 2012 - April 2015 Undergraduate research asst. Small Grains Breeding Progject, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

July 2015 - February 2018 Research Assistant III, Div. of Gastroenterology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN

January 2020 - April 2020 Teaching Assistant, HRT 430 Introduction to Wines and Vines

2019

• Graduate Office Fellowship - $1000

2020

• Selma Cafe Aspiring Grower Impact Grant - $3000
• "Gene Editing to Advance Plant Breeding" 2020 MSU/Corteva Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Symposia Series -- Co-chairs Kathleen Rhoades and Charity Goeckeritz - $6000

2021

• "Breeding Orphan Crops for Sustainable Food Systems" 2021 MSU/Corteva Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Symposia Series -- Co-chairs Kathleen Rhoades and Charity Goeckeritz - $3000

2022

• "Plant Reproductive Biology" 2022 MSU/Corteva Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Symposia Series -- Co-chairs Kathleen Rhoades and Charity Goeckeritz - $6000

Rhoades, K. E. B., McFerson, J. R., Peace, C., Sebolt, A., Coe, M., Iezzoni, A. F. (Aug. 2018) What Resonates with our Stakeholders? The Impact of RosBREED as Communicated by Trade Magazine Writers. Poster presented at the meeting of the American Society of Horticulture Science, Washington, D.C.

Gasic, K., Cai, L., Rhoades, K. E. B., Da Silva Linge, C., Li, Z., Saski, C., McCord, P. Iezzoni, A. F. (Aug. 2020) Haplotype Diversity of a QTL Hotspot on Chromosome 4 in Peach and Sweet Cherry. Talk presented at the meeting of the American Society of Horticulture Science, virtual meeting.

Rhoades, K. E. B., Goeckeritz, C., Edger, P., Hollender, C., Iezzoni, A. F. (August 2021) Subgenome assignment in the allotetraploid sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) provides evidence of biased fractionation favoring the sweet cherry (P. avium L.) subgenome. Poster presented at the National Association of Plant Breeders annual conference, virtual meeting.

Rhoades, K. E. B., Assigning subgenomes in allotetraploid sour cherry, Prunus cerasus L. October 18, 2021. Polyploidy webinar talk.

Bird, K. A., Jacobs, M., Sebolt, A., Rhoades, K., Alger, E. I., Colle, M., Alekman, M. L., Bies, P. K., Cario, A. J., Chigurupati, R. S., Collazo, D. R., Finley, S., Garland, B., Hein, K. M., Hicks, J., Hillenberg, A. R., Kado, L. I., Kilian, V. R., Longueuil, P. F., … Edger, P. P. (2022). Parental origins of the cultivated tetraploid sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.). Plants, People, Planet, 1– 7.

Rhoades, K. E. B., Goeckeritz, C., Hollender, C., Iezzoni, A. F. (August 2022) Subgenome expression of a fruit softening-associated expansin varies among cultivars of the tetraploid sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.). Poster presented at the National Association of Plant Breeders annual meeting, Ames, IA.

Rhoades, K. E. B., Iezzoni, A. F. Homoeologous exchange and subgenome content in a diverse panel of allopolyploid sour cherry, Prunus cerasus L. Poster presented at the Plant and Animal Genome meeting, San Diego, CA.

Goeckeritz CZ, Rhoades KE, Childs KL, Iezzoni AF, VanBuren R, Hollender CA. 2023. Genome of tetraploid sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) ‘Montmorency’ identifies three distinct ancestral Prunus genomes. Hortic Res. 10(7):uhad097. doi:10.1093/hr/uhad097.

March 2018 - August 2019 RosBREED Extension Team member
September 2019 - August 2020 Dept. of Horticulture Graduate Programs Committee, graduate student representative
June 2020 - June 2022 Dept. of Horticulture Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee, member
August 2020 - December 2022 Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology Program student representative

• MS Office
• R statistics, data curation, and data visualization
• Unix command line, incl. script writing for job submission to a cluster
• Tree and fruit phenotyping for breeding programs
• Extraction of DNA and RNA for sequencing, incl. from tissues high in secondary metabolites, quality assessment of extracted material, prep for Illumina short-read sequencing

• National Association of Plant Breeders
• Center of Michigan Beekeepers