Dr. Jamie Levitt, associate professor, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, attended a two-week conference in July as part of the latest cohort of the E. Kika De La Garza Fellows Program in Washington D.C.

This program brought together 30 honorees from Hispanic-Serving Institutions nationwide to explore how USDA services and programs can support their work, students and communities, and collaborated with scientists from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

The initiative is part of USDA’s Hispanic-Serving Institutions National Program, which is committed to supporting workforce development opportunities for faculty, staff and students in the areas of agricultural, food, natural resources and human sciences.

Since its inception in 1998, the program has engaged nearly 450 faculty and staff affiliated with K-12 districts and universities that have a 25% or more Hispanic student enrollment. Currently, there are 600 Hispanic-Serving Institutions nationally, serving more than 2 million students.

Dr. Fayzul Pasha, chair of the Department of Civil and Geomatics Engineering, and Dr. Jorge Pesantez, assistant professor of civil engineering, are co-authors, along with more than 100 researchers, on a paper for the American Society of Civil Engineers.

This paper is a collaboration of worldwide experts in water resources engineering. Pesantez led the Fresno State efforts to forecast water demand using AI methods. It has been published in the ASCE Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management and will become a main reference for water demand forecasting models.