HONOLULU – The Hawaii ag-tech start up Smart Yields has named Lizzy Schiller as its Head of Education and Growth. She joins the award-winning company as a co-founder and the 8th employee.
In her role in Hawaii and San Francisco, Schiller is responsible for convening schools, classrooms and students around the challenges of food security and sustainability. Her work encourages the exploration of solutions to a growing population despite shrinking farmlands and diminishing natural resources.
“We have to address what’s in front of us and drive the change that’s needed to overcome one of our most serious issues: food sustainability,” said Schiller. “With a global population expected to reach 10 billion within the next 35 years, the planet will need to increase food production by as much as 70 percent. We have to develop the next generation of solution seekers.”
In Ag-Tech, where women leaders are sparse, Lizzy engages students from Kindergarten through 12th grade, as well as universities, to be a part of the solution to the food production challenge. She is focused on educating and empowering students to design projects that speak to technology’s role in farming.
She brings a unique set of experiences in the education sector from a classroom teacher’s perspective, the nonprofit sector, and the ed-tech arena. Prior to joining Smart Yields, Lizzy worked as Director of Community Operations for the award-winning, ed-tech start up Comprendio, an interactive online platform.
Lizzy holds an M.Ed with a concentration in Educational Leadership from Chaminade University and a B.A. in Psychology from Whitman College. After earning her bachelor’s degree, she joined Teach For America, where she taught Kindergarten and Second Grade on Hawaii island. She also served as its region’s Operations Coordinator. Born and raised on Kauai, Lizzy attended Kauai High School and graduated as valedictorian.
Smart Yields is driving the technology development to increase crop yields. Sensors gather data and the Smart Yields app aggregates and presents information in a simple format, so growers are aware of changes in environmental conditions and react accordingly. Industrious and innovative, the lithe start up is morphing in real time – constantly pushing its product development to a new level of high performance as it helps farmers increase their yield by addressing microclimates, sharing data with nearby farms and tracking migration of pests.
About Smart Yields
Smart Yields is a mobile app for farmers that monitors, tracks and trends variables such as anticipating rain or advising of irrigation needs that influence a particular crop. Aided by more than 80 high-resolution sensors, Smart Yields collects a field of environmental conditions in water, air and soil, which enables farmers to eliminate the guesswork when identifying problems to better optimize operations and increase production. Smart Yields’ real-time dashboard transcends language barriers with universal icon symbols that allow farmers worldwide to understand and use the technology. Part of the Fall 2015 Cohort of the Blue Startups Accelerator Program, Smart Yields also was named Clean Tech/Ag Entrepreneur of 2016 by Hawaii Venture Capital Association and a 2016 finalist in Pacific Business News’ Business Leadership Awards. Visit smartyields.com for more information.
