Diane Rowland is a professor of plant ecophysiology at the University of Maine. She has had a career-long goal of fostering and building transdisciplinary approaches to supporting research, teaching, and outreach that align with globally relevant solutions to society’s largest challenges. Diane served as the dean of the college of Earth, Life, and Health Sciences and director of the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station from 2021 to 2026 – a position that embodied the merger of disciplines around teaching and research from marine science to forestry and health professions to environmental sciences. She was also instrumental in establishing and managing the UMaine/USDA ARS PFAS Center of Excellence. Prior to UMaine, Diane served as a center director, department head, and professor at the University of Florida, and a lead scientist with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. Diane’s disciplinary expertise and experience have been focused on plant responses to environmental stress in an effort to maintain food production under ever-increasing environmental volatility. In her teaching roles, Diane co-established and led UF’s internationally recognized Agroecology graduate program, focused on evaluating the sustainability and resilience of global agroecosystems. She also went on to establish and direct the Center for Stress Resilient Agriculture, focused on transdisciplinary approaches to researching, extending, and teaching about the complexity of challenges to maintaining sustainable food production worldwide.