Executive Director, VISTA F3
As the executive director of VISTA, Bernacchi brings together university, industry and community partners to solve the greatest challenges of our time: climate change, food systems, water, and well-being. Since 2015, Bernacchi has coordinated diverse interdisciplinary teams on multi-million dollar programs at the University of California, Merced. As Farms, Food, Future Innovation Initiative gear lead, Bernacchi is building the entrepreneurship ecosystem to enable good ideas to flourish into opportunities for climate-ready agritech and economic development. UC Merced launched the Experimental Smart Farm to serve as the Agricultural Experiment Station facility, for which Bernacchi co-developed the faculty visioning. Bernacchi holds a doctorate from Texas A&M University and conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Idaho with a focus on agtech adoption, climate change adaptation, and water resources management. Her scholarship is on environmental communication, media representation and access, and she published a guidebook to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.