Mehmet Öztan
Contact Information
Mehmet Öztan, Ph.D., Director of Community Engagement - Dr. Öztan received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at Michigan State University in GIS-enabled groundwater modeling of Michigan's watersheds, and has interdisciplinary research experience related to conflict resolution for transboundary water resources.
Soon after completion of his Ph.D. studies, he transitioned into farming and growing culturally significant seeds of Turkey. He farmed in the Tampa Bay Region from 2012-2018 and in Preston County, West Virginia, from 2019-2024. He is also the founder of the Anatolian Seeds Recovery and Preservation (ANATOHUM) Project that aims to re-vitalize, preserve, document, and promote the traditional seeds of Türkiye. Through the project, he has introduced more than 120 open-pollinated seed varieties to the American seed market.
From 2018-2024, Dr. Öztan was a Service Assistant Professor in the Eberly College of Arts & Sciences at West Virginia University where he worked on community engagement, communication and outreach projects related to food justice, food production, development of local businesses via agricultural entrepreneurship, and faculty development for publicly-engaged scholarly work among other topics. In this role he was also involved with grant writing and helping others develop community engagement component needed for their grants.
Dr. Öztan was a 2024 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellow, and nominated for the 2024 James Beard Foundation Leadership award in Industry Culture & Practices category. He is also the co-owner of Two Seeds in a Pod seed company.
You can watch a short documentary, sponsored by the Library of Congress, about Dr. Öztan's work below:
