{"id":4767,"date":"2022-06-21T17:21:18","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T21:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/people\/lmquesad\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T15:46:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T19:46:53","slug":"lmquesad","status":"publish","type":"person","link":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/people\/lmquesad\/","title":{"rendered":"Lina Quesada"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026 Executive Director, IR-4 Project
\n2024 William Neil Reynolds Distinguished Professor <\/span>and University Faculty Scholar, <\/span>Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology and N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative, North Carolina State University
\n2018 Associate Professor and University Faculty Scholar, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University
\n2013 Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University
\n2012 NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University
\n2011 Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University
\n2010 Ph.D. Plant Pathology, Department of Plant Pathology, Michigan State University
\n2006 Visiting Scholar, Department of Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University
\n2005 B.Sc. Biology, Universidad de Los Andes (Bogota, Colombia)
\n2005 B.Sc. Microbiology, Universidad de Los Andes (Bogota, Colombia)<\/p>\n

Research<\/h2>\n

As Executive Director of The IR-4 Project, I lead a national program dedicated to delivering safe and effective disease and pest management solutions for U.S. specialty crop growers. IR-4 bridges science, regulation and industry to ensure that farmers have access to the tools they need to produce fruits, vegetables, herbs, mushrooms and ornamentals that sustain our food systems and rural economies.<\/span><\/p>\n

My career has been grounded in building collaborative, science-driven solutions that protect high-value crops and respond to emerging threats. As a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor at NC State, I led interdisciplinary teams integrating genomics, diagnostics, epidemiology and field research to safeguard specialty crop industries and strengthen export markets. Our work translated discovery into action through resistance monitoring, biosurveillance and rapid-response strategies adopted nationally and internationally.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout my career, I have prioritized partnerships across academia, government, and industry, and invested deeply in developing the next generation of agricultural scientists and leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am committed to advancing U.S. specialty crop agriculture through strategic collaboration, regulatory innovation and science that delivers measurable impact for growers.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am a member of the Graduate Faculty for the <\/span>Plant Pathology<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Functional Genomics<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Biotechnology<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and the <\/span>Genetics and Genomics<\/span><\/a> programs at NC State. I am also part of the\u00a0 <\/span>N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative<\/span><\/a> and have a secondary appointment in the <\/span>Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Selected Publications<\/h2>\n

Visit my previous lab website<\/a>\u00a0for a complete list of publications.<\/p>\n

More Information<\/h2>\n

The IR-4 Project website<\/a><\/p>\n

NC State Vegetable Pathology Lab website<\/a>
\nLinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":896,"featured_media":82605,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"group":[133,111,134,136,141,146],"person_tag":[],"class_list":["post-4767","person","type-person","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","group-extension-stakeholder-engagement","group-faculty","group-field-based-research-trials","group-genomics","group-molecular-biology","group-plant-pathology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/4767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/person"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/896"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/4767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82610,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/4767\/revisions\/82610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/group?post=4767"},{"taxonomy":"person_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/psi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person_tag?post=4767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}