An Enhanced Worldview
Friday, May 27, 2022
Media Contact: Jami Mattox | Agricultural Communications Services | 405-744-8061 | jami.mattox@okstate.edu
Lia Mastronardi is passionate about two things — logic and cultures. Three, if you count her cat, TomTom.
Mastronardi is a Master of International Agriculture Program student in the Oklahoma State University Ferguson College of Agriculture. She is also a small-business owner, co-founder of a technology startup, retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and former political adviser.
She has more than 20 years of international experience, but MIAP helps her pursue an interest in sustainability.
“I am kind of like the two sides of a brain,” Mastronardi said. “I like people, experiences, culture and languages, but I also like logic.”
MIAP students use existing skillsets to develop international agriculture, said Karl Rich, MIAP director.
“For Lia, I think MIAP is an opportunity to pivot,” Rich said. “She has all this great experience working in the military. She’s got years of experience working with different contractors, managing projects, and so on. MIAP is an opportunity for her to try something else.”
A desire to learn drew Mastronardi into her various careers, she said.
“It is a little weird to look back and ask, ‘Why did I go there?’” Mastronardi said. “It was not necessarily any plan of mine.”
Mastronardi received an Air Force ROTC scholarship while majoring in math at Vanderbilt University. After earning her undergraduate degree and an Air Force commission in 1988, she said she hoped to travel.
“When I joined the Air Force, I asked to be assigned to either coast,” Mastronardi said. “So, they sent me to Omaha, Nebraska.”
In 1992, Mastronardi caught the attention of her superiors and was selected to attend Naval Postgraduate School, where she earned a master’s degree in national security affairs, she said. During this time, Mastronardi discovered her affinity for languages, she added.
“I took a language test, and I walked out of there with my head hung low,” Mastronardi said. “I really thought I failed the thing.”
Instead, she had the second-highest score on the exam.
The next summer, Mastronardi earned a language proficiency in Ukrainian through Harvard University and the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. That fall, she was assigned to Europe.
“Lia always wanted to be overseas,” said Paul DeSisto, retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and one of Mastronardi’s cousins. “She did extremely well as a junior officer, and that is why they sent her.”
While serving as a political adviser at Aviano Air Base in Italy, Mastronardi became friends with then-Capt. Maria Carl, the public affairs director.
“One of the things that brought Lia and I together was this desire for lifelong learning,” said Carl, who retired as a colonel. “The military, especially the Air Force, really cultivates this in its officers.”
After retiring from the military in 2008, Mastronardi continued to travel, managing oilfield logistics in Oklahoma, co-founding a canvassing company in Austin, Texas, and starting a veteran-run consulting business.
“It is not uncommon for a lot of retired military to do a number of different things,” Carl said. “We retire at a pretty young age. There is still quite a bit of runway to do other things.”
Mastronardi capitalizes on her love of logic and cultures by developing sustainability, she said.
“I have always liked sustainability and the focus on the environment,” Mastronardi said. “I learned some while I was in the military. Wars were being fought in Africa, and a lot of it was over water and food.”
Agriculture is one of the best areas for international impact, Rich said.
“If you are working overseas doing international work, agriculture is a fantastic touch point,” Rich said. “That is where the development challenges really are.”
Experiencing different cultures is essential for international development, said DeSisto, who earned a master’s degree in international affairs from OSU while at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma.
“Somebody like Lia is very much unique in her background,” DeSisto said. “It is not just what she has done. It is where she has been, the types of people she dealt with and the places she lived.”
Sustainability is protecting, preserving, and replenishing natural resources in an economically beneficial way, Mastronardi said.
“My focus in MIAP is international, sustainable business,” Mastronardi said. “I would like to do consulting that has to do with policy implementation.”
Mastronardi, like astronaut Thomas Pesquet, thinks of Earth as a capsule, she said.
“I like to see things from a stratospheric level,” Mastronardi said.
“There is a way of being symbiotic with nature. There are ways of using resources that encourage maintenance and preservation.”
The flexibility of MIAP and the option to customize the degree drew Mastronardi to the program, she said, and was the reason Carl recommended MIAP to her.
“They really let you curate your own degree,” said Carl, 2020 MIAP alumnus. “That appealed to Lia, and I know she has been very happy with that.”
Mastronardi, like Carl, is completing the program remotely and will finish in the fall of 2022.
“What I really loved about the MIAP program was the faculty and the fact that you got so much hands-on experience, particularly when you are a distance learner,” Carl said. “I really appreciated how much individual attention they gave us.”
Mastronardi is not in MIAP to build her résumé, Carl said. Rather, she is in the program to learn.
“For someone who is older, like Lia and me, we are already established,” Carl said. “We truly are looking at this as an opportunity to give us insight and education.”
Mastronardi seeks to use her policy background to help agriculturists in other cultures be more sustainable.
“During my time in the military, I worked with a lot of other countries’ governments,” Mastronardi said. “That skillset I already have can lend itself to working in international agriculture.”
Mastronardi’s care for others is not limited to humans. While working oilfield logistics, she rescued her cat, TomTom. Now, they reside in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
In Mastronardi’s myriad of experiences, her intelligence and heart for service led her to improve the lives of those around her, Carl said.
“Lia is a great representative of a student who is truly a lifelong learner,” Carl said. “She is not only there to learn for herself, but I really do believe that she can contribute so much to her fellow students and to the faculty. She has such a wealth of experience.”
Story By: Wade Yoder | Cowboy Journal