Shavonn (Whiten) Watkins
Dr. Shavonn (Whiten) Watkins is a beginning farmer and owner of Sowing Development Solutions, LLC., a small-scale pasture poultry, specialty crops, and microgreens operation based in rural Mississippi. Dr. Watkins earned her Bachelor of Science from Xavier University of Louisiana (2011), and her Masters and Doctorate in Entomology from Montana State University (2014) and Texas A&M University (2018), respectively. Her technical areas of specialty include: International Agricultural Development, agriculture program implementation, management and evaluation, biological risk assessment, insecticide toxicology, gene-editing technologies, integrated pest management, and medical, urban, and veterinary entomology. Professionally, Dr. Watkins has experience in the academic (postdoctoral scientist—Texas A&M), federal (USAID, USDA APHIS, U.S. Embassy Lima– Peru) and corporate (Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc.) sectors. Dr. Watkins is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is dedicated to serving as a conduit for change, especially as it relates to representation and reclamation of BIPOC farmer across the United States.