The University of Wyoming welcomes Jaden Tatum as a new food and nutrition specialist with UW Extension. Tatum will also serve as an assistant professor with the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.

In her extension role, Tatum will conduct research and outreach related to food and nutrition. She will answer questions about food preservation and food safety; help extension educators develop new food and nutrition programming; and promote food security initiatives and resilient local food systems.

“I have a personal interest in baking, cooking, canning and gardening, and I am so glad that part of my role gets to be engaging with people around these topics,” says Tatum. “I love that my role is to help find research-backed information and resources for people exploring these areas.”

Tatum earned her doctoral degree in food, agricultural, and biological engineering in 2024 from the Ohio State University (OSU). She achieved her bachelor’s in biological and agricultural engineering in 2019 from the University of Arkansas.

During her time at OSU, Tatum worked as a project manager for a research project examining season extension. For three years, she developed and studied high tunnel geothermal heat systems in collaboration with local farmers and OSU Extension.

“I loved working on these practical projects, seeing the results across growing seasons, sharing our findings with other interested producers and educators, and using their questions and ideas to make the next round of applied research even more practical for a wider audience,” says Tatum.

Tatum looks forward to working with restaurants, food businesses, specialty crop producers, home cooks, food preservers, and extension educators across Wyoming.

Tatum started her new role at UW this August. She can be reached at jtatum2@uwyo.edu.