Karissa Palmer

Karissa Palmer is a Ph.D. student and graduate research assistant in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications. She was born and raised in Florida, the sunshine state, where she obtained her bachelor’s in agricultural communications at the University of Florida. While attending the University of Florida she conducted an undergraduate thesis, which sparked her interest in behavioral and social science research. Knowing she wanted to pursue higher education, she searched for master’s programs. She ended up landing a graduate fellowship at Texas A&M University in ALEC to complete her master’s. She successfully defended her thesis and graduated in May 2023. While researching as an undergraduate and master’s student, she has explored topics such as women leading in agriculture, crisis leadership, food waste behavior, egocentric networks of women leading in agriculture, farmers’ mental health, and virtual reality. She is excited to continue her education at Texas A&M to complete her Ph.D. and work with Drs. Leggette and Wald on the Texas Climate-Smart Initiative. She has an interest in agricultural communications research regarding food labeling and message framing/persuasion, artificial intelligence, and consumer adoption of products from innovative food technology.