Dr. Joseph "Joey" Blankinship is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science in the College of Agricultural, Environmental, and Life Sciences (CALES) at the University of Arizona. He is also the Founding Director of the Desert Agriculture Soil Health Initiative (DASHI). Joey grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and earned his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences in 2002 from the University of Virginia. He then headed west, earning his PhD in Biology in 2009 from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, followed by two postdoctoral research positions at the University of California Merced and Santa Barbara. The Blankinship Soil Health Group investigates the roles of soil microorganisms in controlling ecosystem services, including their glues that help prevent wind and water erosion, their extracellular enzymes that unlock plant nutrients, their residues that sequester carbon, and their metabolic activities that produce and consume atmospheric greenhouse gases. We work across biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering to find ways to improve soil and plant health, restore ecosystem functions, and sustain desert agriculture.