Brian Schilling

Biography

Dr. Brian J. Schilling is recognized for his expertise in state and local agricultural policy, having worked on numerous academic projects, public policy studies, and policy-making bodies over the past 23 years. He has served in several capacities at the Rutgers University School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS). These include: research economist (1994-2000), director of research in agricultural and food policy (2000-2002), adjunct instructor (2004-2010), and associate director of the Rutgers Food Policy Institute (FPI) (2002-2010). In 2010 he joined Rutgers Cooperative Extension and the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics and is today an associate professor and extension specialist in agricultural policy. Schilling is experienced in stakeholder-driven research development and implementation, and educational outreach. He has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator on 32 research grants and contracts totaling $2.43 million and served as a senior investigator on an additional 10 research grants and contracts totaling $6.4 million. As associate director of FPI, he supervised day-to-day administration of the Institute, including staff recruitment and management, budgeting and fiscal reporting, and contract management. During his tenure, the Food Policy Institute managed $30 million in research grants and contracts. Schilling has authored peer-reviewed journal articles (32), book chapters (2), academic conference presentations (64), research reports (40), Extension fact sheet/bulletins (15), and numerous briefings on various economic and policy dimensions of the agricultural and food industries. He has been invited to speak at more than 170 academic, Extension-training, industry, government, and civic events. He is frequently contacted by the media, government officials, industry associations, businesses, and Extension/academic colleagues regarding agricultural and food issues. Current areas of research and Extension programming focus on evaluating farmland preservation policies and outcomes and agritourism enterprise development as a farm economic development strategy

Research Interest

 Farm viability and agricultural economic development at the urban-rural fringe; farmland preservation; agritourism; and food system security