Dr. Hector Menendez is an Assistant Professor at South Dakota State University (SDSU), with a focus on complex grazing systems. He is housed at SDSU’s West River Research and Extension center and focuses his research and extension programming on grazing beef cattle and bison systems in the western U.S. Dr. Menendez earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Sam Houston State University in 2010 and 2012, respectively, and his Ph.D. from SDSU in 2018. He gained postdoctoral experience from Texas A&M University and the USDA-ARS Dairy Forage Research Center before starting his faculty appointment at SDSU in the fall of 2020. Dr. Menendez has rapidly gained a national and international reputation for employing a systems-level approach to tackle the complex issues facing today’s livestock producers. Dr. Menendez develops and employs cutting-edge technologies to enhance his research. He additionally strives to ensure those same technologies can be feasibly used by producers to enhance their operations. Dr. Menendez has authored or co-authored 19 refereed journal articles, 9 conference proceedings, 60 abstracts, and 1 book chapter. He has secured nearly $84 million in funding to support his research and outreach activities. This includes a $1 million USDA-NIFA IDEAS grant that Dr. Menendez authored in his first year on faculty and a recent $80 million Climate-Smart Commodities grant focused on grazing beef and bison.