Curriculum Coordinator

Rita Mumm is the curriculum coordinator for PBEA. She joined the University of Illinois faculty to establish and direct the Illinois Plant Breeding Center in 2008. It is the preeminent graduate-level educational center for crop genetic improvement in the United States. She is professor emerita at the University.

Mumm has had an extensive career in crop improvement, which spans industrial seed product development, academic research, and plant breeding education.  She is a pioneer in developing some of the first biotechnological seed solutions in crops with DEKALB Genetics Corp., and in establishing a high-throughput molecular marker system to implement genomic information in seed product development. She is a named inventor on four U.S. patents.  

Currently, Mumm serves as the Education and Training Lead for the USAID Soybean Innovation Laboratory, and is on the Board of Trustees for CIMMYT. Additionally, she is Principal at GeneMax Services, a consulting firm to the seed industry. She directs the University of California-Davis African Plant Breeding Academy, a continuing education program for African plant breeders--an initiative of the African Orphan Crop Consortium.  She also led the National Association of Plant Breeders (USA) in its fledgling years.

Phone:
(217) 244-9497
Office address:
AE-110 Turner Hall 
1102 S. Goodwin 
Urbana, IL 61801