Dr. Richard W. Griffin is the Founder and President of ARC Communications, LLC of Texas, and the Creator of the Taste Tester by Food Group Star NFT.

Organized in 2010, ARC is a social justice and science edutainment and publishing company, formed as a creative outlet for Dr. Griffin’s interest in science, mathematics, music, art, and literature. Broccoli in the character that he assumes in Food Group Star animations.

A native of northeastern North Carolina, Dr. Griffin’s formal training includes Pedology, Soils and Land Uses, Environmental Science Education, and Wetlands, along with Public Administration with an Environmental Policy focus.  He is a graduate of North Carolina State University and Texas A&M University.

He is the newly elected Vice President (2022- 2023) of the Professional Soil Science Association of Texas, and has served on the National Technical Committee for Hydric Soils for two decades. 

Over the span of three decades, Dr. Griffin has served in academic and professional appointments that include Interim/Acting Dean, Interim/Acting Research Director, Acting Extension Administrator, Department Head, Professor (tenured), Associate Professor (tenured), Assistant Professor (tenure-track), Research Scientist, Consulting Soil Scientist, Professional Geoscientist, and Director and Educator – Studies in Environmental Education Program.

Dr. Griffin has a strong interest in logistics, which is connected to his training in Environmental Policy with a focus on Cost-Benefit Analyses of Supply Chain Systems that use Agricultural (Crops and Forests) as raw materials to be produced, processed, marketed, transported, and sold as part of renewable ecosystem – economic model.

He is a fellow of the Food Systems Leadership Institute (FSLI), Cohort # 3, from 2009 to present. The FSLI is dedicated to developing individual and institutional leadership for a 21st Century food system.

The program curriculum lays the groundwork for leaders who will transition food systems research, education, and outreach to broader, more holistic approaches.

FSLI is a program of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. North Carolina State University is the site for primary sessions.

The Ohio State University and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo are also partners in the FSLI, providing their expertise in leadership and food systems to the FSLI curriculum and hosting on site residential sessions for FSLI participants.

Dr. Griffin’s research interests range from soil health and environmental quality, hydric and wetland soils, ecological based approaches to agricultural systems managed for crops and pastures, and aerial deposition of dust particles that potentially impact bio-environmental and biomedical systems.