Dr. Sarah C. Klopatek is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Davis. Her current research focus is assessing the change in beef cattle’s water footprint from 1991 to 2019. Dr. Klopatek’s dissertation focused on the environmental, nutritional, and economic trade-offs of grass-fed and grain-fed beef production (5 manuscripts published/pending). Her study was one of the largest and most comprehensive sustainability assessments comparing grass-fed and grain-fed beef systems. In addition, Dr. Klopatek has completed numerous other livestock research projects including: life cycle assessments, a national beef sustainability and Beef Quality Assurance survey, meat quality and safety assessments, heat-stress studies, feed efficiency and methane mitigation trials. She developed an upper division beef systems course and advised the Young Cattlemen’s Association. Dr. Klopatek was the director of the U.C. Davis media training program “Lights, Camera, Research” and has recently been on numerous radio and podcast interviews to discuss beef systems and sustainability.