Meet the Team

Adam Taylor, manager

540-588-0283    |    adamht@vt.edu

Adam Taylor oversees the 377-acre center and its vital partnerships and projects with the community, university faculty, and others.

Taylor came to Virginia Tech in 2016 from the West Virginia Farmers Market Association, a statewide organization in West Virginia, where he worked to support and grow West Virginia’s local food economy through project development and management, stakeholder outreach, and policy change.

Taylor also carried out a two-year assignment with the Peace Corps as a forestry Extension agent in Zambia and a yearlong internship on author Barbara Kingsolver’s 100-plus-acre organic farm, highlighted in the book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.”

A native of Tazewell, Virginia, Taylor earned his bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Emory and Henry College in 2008 and a master’s degree in agriculture from Oklahoma State in 2014.

Katie Trozzo, Forest Herb Network coordinator

540-231-4582    |    ketrozzo@vt.edu

Katie Trozzo has participated in agroforestry projects at the Catawba Sustainability Center since 2010. As part of her Master’s project, she designed and coordinated the installation of the center's first multifunctional riparian buffers featuring native fruit and nut trees and floral shrubs. Later, in 2017, she designed and coordinated the installation of more than eight riparian and four upland agroforestry systems on 9.5 acres at the center.

She received her doctorate at Virginia Tech in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, studying interest in forest farming across southwest Virginia and how communities organize to access forest farming livelihood opportunities.

Trozzo is a Food Systems Network and Outreach Specialist at Virginia Tech housed in the Department of Agriculture, Leadership, and Community Education.

She supports the Forest Herb Network and is also the coordinator of the Virginia Beginning Farmer and Rancher Coalition and an associate with the Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation.