Karly Regan: Building Bridges Between Research and Application

Entomology

Name: Karly Regan

Preferred Pronouns: She/Hers

Hometown & Current Town: Easthampton, MA/Sunderland, MA

Graduation Year: Ph.D. 2019

Major: Entomology

Additional Degrees & Institutions: BS Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst; MS Plant Science and Entomology, South Dakota State University; Postdoctoral Research, Cornell University

Current Professional Title: Field Development Manager

Name of Employer: Certis Biologicals

Brief Description of Your Role: As a field development manager, my responsibilities are split between helping run a field trial program to research the efficacy of our products and providing technical outreach for our company. The research trials help position best use practices for existing products and develop new products. In addition, I assist with educating our customers and making sure they know how to use the products correctly. It's my job to serve as a technical expert for any questions the sales reps in my territory receive.

Why did you choose Penn State for your doctorate?

There was an opportunity to work with my Ph.D. advisor, Mary Barbercheck. She had a grant for a project that really appealed to my interests and was the type of research I wanted to do. For my research, I was looking at different ways of improving soil health in organic cropping systems, and how that impacted pest control and beneficial insects in those cropping systems.

The other part that appealed to me was that the college has a large entomology department. I was coming from a plant science department with few entomologists. It was nice to come to a department with a greater number of people that were excited about the same things I was excited about.

What inspired you to pursue your degrees?

When I was an undergrad, I was a biology major and was figuring out what subsection of biology I was most interested in. I got a position working as a research assistant for a Ph.D. student doing a plant-insect interactions project for her graduate work. That was my first exposure to it and I loved it. I ended up working in the same lab for the next three years that I was a UMass, doing different projects with different members of the lab and getting broader experience. They kept me around and kept finding new projects for me to work on.

What clubs, organizations, or leadership roles were you involved in?

I was in the Penn State Science Policy Society and Graduate Women in Science.

The Science Policy Society helps prepare people who are interested in going into a science policy career in state or national government. We organized an annual "Hill Day" where a small group of students would go down to Washington, D.C. to lobby for more science funding. Having the chance to learn how to do that was such a rewarding and interesting experience as a scientist!

What is a favorite Penn State memory?

A recurring experience that was memorable was that we had a weekly entomology craft night, where we'd make crocheted insects or jewelry. It was a stress relief and bonding experience. We had a bunch of projects we were working on throughout the year, and it was a chance to get together at someone's apartment to socialize on a weekday evening and create something fun together.

How has your Penn State education influenced your career or life?

My project involved working with Extension to give presentations to local growers sharing the results of our research with them and hearing what challenges and concerns they had on their farms. This taught me how to translate research to audiences who can use that information and the importance of tying applied research back to stakeholder need.

I also did a graduate teaching certificate while I was at Penn State because I thought I was more interested in teaching at the time career-wise. Then paired with the Science Policy Society, I cemented the realization that I had a strong interest in science communication. Communicating the results of my research to different audiences was what I was most excited about throughout my training as a scientist. Having so many opportunities at Penn State to practice communicating to various audiences and using different types of communication was really helpful as I was thinking about what I wanted to do after I got my degree.

Can you highlight your career path?

When I finished my Ph.D., I knew was I interested in Extension and thought I wanted an extension specialist faculty position. I pursued a post-doc position at Cornell to round out areas of knowledge I hadn't gotten as much of during my Ph.D. to make sure I was well-prepared for whatever position I ended up in.

I had a great experience there and then ended up coming back to work as an extension educator because I realized the extension focus was more exciting to me. I worked for a couple years with the horticulture unit with mostly Amish and Old Order Mennonite growers in South Central PA. I worked with vegetable growers, small fruit growers, greenhouse ornamentals, and all kinds of other different crops. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work.

A colleague in my network sent me the position I have now and it was the kind of work I like to do, just in the corporate realm. It’s been a good opportunity and growth experience for me.

What are one or two of your proudest accomplishments in which your Penn State education played a role?

Getting my Ph.D. was a big accomplishment. I have a lot of people I know from grad school that have them, but in my day-to-day life I don’t know many people with Ph.Ds. It was something unique that I didn’t really know existed until I was in college and learned about graduate degree options.

I also have Type I diabetes and have had fairly good management of it long-term. Now in adulthood, I have gotten my blood sugars managed well enough they're almost at non-diabetic levels. I credit my scientific background to that because I'm really good at looking at data to find patterns and making changes based on that. I don't think I'd be as excited about looking at graphs and statistics around my blood sugar if I wasn't a scientist.

What has been the best advice you've ever received? 

It's a little cliché, but you can't pour from an empty cup. Finding a work-life balance and figuring out how to make sure you're meeting your needs to be able to give more to the people and things you care about in life is important.

What collegiate advice or professional development tip would you give to a current student?

Don't sleep on opportunities while you have them. There's so much going on around campus, whether it's hobbies or professional development. You won't necessarily have access to those types of things once you graduate. Obviously, grad school takes a lot of time and energy but finding time to take advantage of what you have access to while you're on campus is helpful. You never know who you'll meet that can be an important part of your network later or what hobby you'll develop that'll be an important piece of keeping you grounded when you're working long hours. Seize those opportunities.

Why are you proud to be a Penn State Ag Sciences alum?

I'm proud to be an alum because it has such a strong legacy as a land-grant university. Pennsylvania has such a diverse and well-developed agricultural industry. I'm glad I got to be part of it and learn about it and come away having developed a strong knowledge of agriculture going into my career. It really prepared me well for opportunities afterward.