Dr. Veum is a research soil scientist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Columbia, Missouri. Her research is cross-disciplinary and includes soil health assessment for agronomic sustainability and environmental protection. She focuses on cropping systems and the role of land use and management practices on soil health, and she evaluates soil health indicators for use in farmer assessments. Currently, she is leading the development of a new soil health scoring system that provides a framework for interpreting soil health measurements at the continental scale, and she is investigating relationships between soil health indicators and important agronomic and environmental outcomes. Dr. Veum founded the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) Soil Health Community in 2014, and she is the incoming President-Elect of the ASA. Dr. Veum also serves as a scientific advisor for multiple public and private soil health initiatives.

Key words: soil health; sustainable agriculture; and the SHAPE assessment.