Dr. Raissa Debacker Moura is an Assistant Professor – Extension Plant Pathologist and Director of the Regional Pulse Crop Diagnostic Clinic at the Plant Science and Plant Pathology Department at Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA. She believes that Research and Extension work together. Growers are the backbone of our agricultural system, and my role as an extension professional is to serve as a conduit between the research community and the farmers. By providing practical solutions and timely advice, we help growers overcome obstacles, ensuring their operations remain viable and prosperous.

Raissa grew up in Brazil, where she earned her B.S. in Biological Science from the Federal University of Espírito Santo. Her research journey began as an undergraduate student working to understand the genetic factors underlying Coffee spp. diversity and disease resistance. During her Master’s and PhD, she worked closely with pineapple growers to develop new molecular diagnostic tools to support international trade affected by quarantine diseases, pathogen genetic diversity, and phenotyping using multiple biotech approaches. She also had the opportunity to do a PhD internship at the University of Florida, where she supported research on integrated management of strawberry diseases and diagnosis. At Kansas State University, Dr. Raissa led an applied field research program on integrated management approaches for economically important diseases in wheat and worked on a project to phenotype and develop new molecular approaches for diagnosing isolates of common and dwarf bunt, using NGS tools and bioinformatics.