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Shamitha Keerthi, Ph.D.

Science Director, Regenerative Crop Systems, North America Agriculture

United States

Shamitha Keerthi headshot.

Shamitha Keerthi Science Director, Regenerative Crop Systems, North America Agriculture © TNC

Areas of Expertise

agriculture, freshwater, water policy, conservation collaboration

Media Contact

Christine Griffiths
ph. +1 912-222-3297
Email:

Direct Contact

Shamitha Keerthi
Email:

Biography

Shamitha Keerthi is the science director for the Regenerative Crop Systems strategy for the North America Agriculture Program. In this role, Shamitha leads science in support of programmatic goals, including identifying and conducting research to address knowledge gaps to scaling regenerative agriculture, building the evidence base around conservation, and on data, metrics and measurement. She works to build strategic research partnerships with research and academic institutions to co-produce decision-relevant science in service of conservation outcomes.

Shamitha is a skilled collaborator who works across internal programs and with external partners to translate scientific data into strategies that advance conservation agriculture practices across large landscapes. Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy in 2017, Shamitha received a Ph.D. from the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she was a recipient of the Dow Doctoral Fellowship for her dissertation on the impacts of U.S. bioenergy policy on land-use and water quality.

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Publications

Peer-Reviewed Papers

McLellan, E. L., Suttles, K. M., Bouska, K. L., Ellis, J. H., Flotemersch, J. E., Goff, M., Golden, H. E., Hill, R. A., Hohman, T. R., Keerthi, S., Keim, R. F., Kleiss, B. A., Lark, T. J., Piazza, B. P., Renfro, A. A., Robertson, D. M., Schilling, K. E., Schmidt, T. S., & Waite, I. R. (2024). Improving ecosystem health in highly altered river basins: a generalized framework and its application to the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2024.1332934

Pelton, R.E., Kazanski, C.E., Keerthi, S., Racette, K.A., Gennet, S., Springer, N., Yacobson, E., Wironen, M., Ray, D., Johnson, K. and Schmitt, J., 2024. Greenhouse gas emissions in US beef production can be reduced by up to 30% with the adoption of selected mitigation measures. Nature Food, 5(9), pp.787-797.

McLellan, E. L., Suttles, K. M., Bouska, K. L., Ellis, J. H., Flotemersch, J. E., Goff, M., Golden, H. E., Hill, R. A., Hohman, T. R., Keerthi, S., Keim, R. F., Kleiss, B. A., Lark, T. J., Piazza, B. P., Renfro, A. A., Robertson, D. M., Schilling, K. E., Schmidt, T. S., & Waite, I. R. (2024). Improving ecosystem health in highly altered river basins: a generalized framework and its application to the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 12.

Miller, S.A., Sharp, B.E., Chamberlain, J.F., Sarkar, S. and Keerthi, S., 2020. Exploring adoption price effects on life cycle inventory results. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 25, pp.1078-1087.

Keerthi, S. and Miller, S.A., 2017. Regional differences in impacts to water quality from the bioenergy mandate. Biomass and Bioenergy, 106, pp.115-126.