Rate My Professor Mallory Rahe

Mallory Lynn Rahe is an Associate Extension Professor and Education Director for Agricultural Business and Policy Extension in the Division of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Missouri's College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. She earned a Ph.D. in Regional Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013, with a dissertation on the effects of social capital, financial capital, and place characteristics on rural civic engagement, and an M.S. in Agricultural Economics in 2008. Prior to her current role, which she began around 2019, Rahe served as an Extension Community Economist in the Department of Applied Economics at Oregon State University from 2009 to 2019, where she conducted applied research on community economic development projects across the state.

Rahe's research focuses on regional and agricultural economic development, emphasizing assistance for producers and stakeholders considering on-farm investments or public investment options. She conducts applied research, data analysis, and trend identification to support strategic decision-making, including studies on value-added industry, farmers market vendor sales and retention, rural population migration and retention, and regional rural wealth creation programs. Her work often involves collaboration with partner organizations such as the Missouri SBDC and Kansas City Food Hub. Notable publications include "Rural leadership development: pathways to community change" (2013, Community Development), co-authored with LE Etuk and others; "Has COVID-19 made rural areas more attractive places to live? Survey evidence from Northwest Missouri" (2022, Regional Science Policy & Practice), with SA Low and AJ Van Leuven; "Leveraging social ties to financial gains: Exploring the impact of social capital in rural development" (2025, Journal of Rural Studies), with AJ Van Leuven and T Malone; "Income inequality and county economic resistance to job loss during the great recession" (2019, Review of Regional Studies); and "Building rural wealth through a value chain approach" (2020, Community Development). Rahe received the J.W. Burch State Specialist Agricultural Extension Award in 2022. She leads efforts in programs like Food Systems, Urban Agriculture, Commercial Horticulture, and the Missouri Agriculture, Food and Forestry Innovation Center, promoting economic resilience, value-added agriculture, and community wealth creation in rural areas.