Alejandro Plastina

Dr. Alejandro Plastina is an Associate Professor/Extension Economist in the Department of Economics at Iowa State University (ISU). His area of specialization is agricultural production and technology, with an emphasis on farm business and financial management. His research focuses on the socioeconomic drivers of conservation practices, voluntary pest resistance management, carbon programs, and agricultural productivity. 

He is an Associate Director of the ISU-Iowa Bankers Association and an Academic Member of the Iowa Chapter of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraiser. He serves as Advisor to the ISU Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation, Chair of the ISU Farm Financial Stress Task Force, and past Chair of the North Central Farm Management Extension Committee.

He has been recognized as the first Farm Foundation Agricultural Economics Fellow (2021), and has received the Dean's Citation for Extraordinary Contributions to the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (2022), the ISU Office of the President Excellence in Remote Instruction Award (2021), the ISU Extension and Outreach Creativity in Service to All Iowans Award (2020), the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association Distinguished Extension Program Award (2019), the ISU ANR Programming Innovation Award (2018), and the ISU Extension and Outreach Impacting Iowa Award (2015). 

Prior to joining ISU in 2014, Dr. Plastina was Senior Economist at the International Cotton Advisory Committee in Washington, DC. He graduated with a BA in Economics from the University of La Plata (Argentina) in 2000, and an MS in Statistics and a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2005 and 2007, respectively.