Keirstan Kure Derstine Email and Phone Number

Seal the Seasons is a young start-up company working with farmers and producers to bring locally grown, peak of season, frozen fruits and vegetables to the grocery store freezer aisles year round• Established vendor relationships with 25+ farms and suppliers, ranging from small family farms to large ingredient suppliers in six regions across the country• Designed and developed key inventory management models that calculate future inventory position based on fluctuations in current inventory and sales projections; managed 30 crops in six regions• Created operating system in Zoho to collect, store and track processing information for production lots; replaced previous system saving $14,280 annually• Developed and manage data base operating system, Zoho, for Operations and Sales departments• Built vendor and processor research, on-boarding and annual audit protocols that serve as the Operations’ department foundation and rule book for vetting and working with vendors• Negotiated annual purchasing and service contracts with suppliers and processors; managed inventory for 1.5 million pounds of produce annually• Contributed to company expansion by adding five additional regions and developing new frozen vegetable product line

Researches, develops and promotes equitable food and farming systems; Whole Crop Harvest, a CEFS initiative, uses a supply chain approach to study why produce is left unharvested and develops solutions to utilize waste produce • Sought out, interviewed and analyzed data from six farmers across North Carolina to better understand factors impacting the decisions to harvest • Researched produce markets, quality grades and other factors that define produce supply chains to better understand what quality produce the market can accept• Developed model to conduct an economic analysis of pick-and-pack cost utilizing data from grower interviews and produce market research

Non-profit food distributor serving institutional customers by procuring, selling and distributing a wide range of products from local growers and producers, located within a 250-mile radius• Efficiently placed orders, managed inventory and quality, set prices, and coordinated logistics for over 300 meat, dairy, egg, grain, and value-added products• Launched four new product lines informed by sales analysis and market research, and executed through collaborating with suppliers, educating sales team, and coordinating product launch• Built and maintained food safety documentation management system to ensure regulatory compliance for 72 suppliers• Educated sales team about product attributes, specs and selling points, by holding monthly presentations to improve sales team knowledge to better sell products to customers• Created customer feedback system in Salesforce to streamline communication between sales and procurement teams

Assist with processing lab samples and dataAssist with field work at Rock Springs Agricultural Research Farm

Sustainability initiative within Food Services to reduce the use of Styrofoam takeout containers at five on-campus dining halls by offering a hard plastic, reusable container that is returned and washed• Founded and managed the Green2Go Program, growing the program from a pilot program to servicing all five on-campus dining halls• Achieved 34% adoption rate at the time of graduation• Worked with university stakeholders, including the Director of Food Services, dining hall managers and staff, and student groups to raise awareness and improve operations • Created, implemented and measured the success of promotional programs to increase usage

Field work surveying wetlands and analyzing soilAssisting in the Penn State HerbariumSorting and preparing macro-invertebrates