Dr. Francis is an agronomist who is concerned about whole-farm and landscape-level issues in agriculture. His B.S. is in Agronomy from the University of California, Davis; M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are from Cornell University in Plant Breeding. Research for the two graduate degrees was conducted in the Philippines and in Colombia, each time with the national maize research programs and involving farmers in the research process. Dr. Francis was maize breeder and systems agronomist with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia for seven years. He has been sorghum breeder and cropping systems specialist with UNL, and has been director of the MIAC Dryland Agriculture Program in Morocco and the Center for Sustainable Agricultural Systems. For one year, he was Director of the International Program for the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania.

Interested in participatory and experiential education, Dr. Francis recently devoted one year to helping design a new MSc program in the Nordic region while on sabbatic leave at the Agricultural University of Norway.