News Around the Institute
Keith Carver Named Permanent UTIA Leader
The UT Board of Trustees approved the recommendation of UT System President Randy Boyd to appoint Keith Carver as the permanent senior vice chancellor and senior vice president of the UT Institute of Agriculture. Carver reports to both Boyd and UT Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman. Carver has been leading the institute since March 1, 2023, and has worked in leadership roles throughout the UT System for twenty-six years.
UT AgResearch Achieves Banner Year
UTIA faculty garnered $104 million in competitive research contracts and grants for 2023, a whopping 228 percent increase from the year before. “The type of work we’re doing is very relevant to Tennessee and beyond,” says UT AgResearch Dean Hongwei Xin. “UT AgResearch is steadily progressing down a path that will continue to serve our agricultural and natural resource production partners, industry that will benefit Tennessee’s economy, and the general population of the state, region, and other parts of the world.” For example, the UT Center for Renewable Carbon is part of a collaboration that is among more than forty teams to receive a first-ever National Science Foundation Engines Development Award and will help develop a green, circular bioeconomy for building materials and consumer goods in the Southeast.
A UT-led team was awarded a grant from the US Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office with a goal to decarbonize each step of the supply chain in the creation of sustainable aviation fuel. The team plans to amend feedstock production soils in the Southeast with a combination of litter and biochar, which is a byproduct of thermochemical sustainable aviation fuel production pathways. The UT System’s One Health Initiative, housed within UT AgResearch, was awarded funding to identify and characterize chronic wasting disease in deer, a growing concern among hunters, landowners, and wildlife officials. And Troy Rowan, assistant professor of animal science, is among ten scientists recognized nationally by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research as a new innovator in identifying areas where genetics can be used to improve the efficiency of forage-based cow-calf production.
UT Extension Wins Employer of the Year
The International Association of Administrative Professionals named UT Extension its 2023 Employer of the Year. The award recognizes employers who have created a workplace culture that strives to realize the full potential of administrative professionals and encourages their growth, both professionally and personally. UT Extension has a robust mentor program and provides resources for administrative support professionals to attain certified administrative professional status through the association. UT Extension Dean Ashley Stokes accepted the award with administrative specialist Trudi Neubeck and administrative support assistant Millie Hanson. Neubeck (BS secondary education, business and marketing ’91, MS instructional design and technology ’22) nominated UT Extension and is past president of the Tennessee Extension Association of Administrative Professionals. Hanson, who works in Washington County, is the state group’s president-elect.
Two Key Leaders Added to the UTIA Community
Jeremy Burnett, former dean of off-campus instructional sites at Southwest Tennessee Community College, is the new director of Lone Oaks Farm in Middleton. His experience in youth programming, hospitality, and higher education is important as he oversees the working cattle and hay farm, the Clays shooting sports facility, the 4-H and Youth Development Center, and hospitality and corporate retreat facilities. He earned a bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant administration and master’s in recreation, tourism and hospitality from UT Knoxville.
Charley Deal is the new vice chancellor of advancement for UTIA. He previously served in the same role for UT Martin and has a proven track record in fundraising, management, and relationship building. At UT Martin, he successfully concluded the university’s largest capital campaign, raising $175 million. Deal has worked for UT for nearly thirty years and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UT Martin and a doctorate from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
One Hundredth 4-H Roundup
The first Tennessee 4-H Roundup, known then as State 4-H Club Camp, was held in July 1923 and attracted 196 delegates from sixteen counties. One hundred years later, 350 youth and adult volunteers from all ninety-five counties descended upon Knoxville in July 2023 and attended events at UTIA, UT Knoxville, and World’s Fair Park. One of the highlights is the announcement of state project winners.
Read more about the anniversary roundup in Our Tennessee magazine
Remaining Still: Revolutionary War Solider Grave at the Blount Unit Featured in Our Tennessee
Because farmland remains undeveloped, pastures and row crops often share space with gravesites and long-gone homesteads. This is the case at the Blount Unit of the East Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center, where faculty conduct livestock research, education, and outreach. A story about the grave of Revolutionary War veteran James Trice, which lies at the unit, was featured in a recent issue of Our Tennessee, the UT System magazine. Trice, who enlisted in 1778 at age 16 and was discharged as a private three years later, migrated to Blount County with his wife, Mary Smith. The Tennessee General Assembly deeded him 217 acres in 1809, a fact his fifth great-granddaughter, Pat Hitson Reilly of Maryville, discovered after center employees contacted her in 2011. A wooden fence protects the gravesite, and a bronze plaque proclaims the site of a veteran’s grave. Archaeologists found broken pieces of glass and crockery nearby that are believed to have been from Trice’s home. UT established the Blount Unit in 1943, purchasing land from four farms. Reilly’s research is not definitive, but it stands to reason that most of the 217 acres of Trice’s farm may all lie within the boundaries of the UT farm.
Morgan Hall Exterior Receives Update
UTIA’s main administrative building and campus icon for a century has an updated exterior and yet one, too, that harkens to the building’s original look. The Morgan Hall Envelope Project encompassed restoration of exterior brick walls by repointing all joints and replacing worn mortar. The same work was done in the recent renovation of UT Knoxville’s Ayres Hall, which was constructed at the same time and dedicated the same weekend in 1921. The echo of Morgan Hall’s past can be seen in new exterior windows that duplicate the building’s original windows, although with the modern plus of being energy efficient.
UTIA and Tennessee State University Hold Inaugural Research Summit
Leaders, researchers, and scientists from UTIA and Tennessee State University met last August in Knoxville to further their collaborations in research and innovation to address some of the Grand Challenges facing Tennessee and beyond. During the summit, sixteen faculty in animal science and food science discussed current collaborations. UT and TSU faculty have collaborated on $40 million of funded research in the past five years, and another $60 million in efforts are proposed or pending funding. The enthusiastic participants left the event with ideas of synergy and follow-up action plans for further mission-oriented collaborations. The next joint summit will take place on the TSU campus.
Women Share Stories of Working in Wine Industry
UTIA researchers are analyzing the experiences of women in leadership positions in the international wine industry with the hope of encouraging more diversity in the male-dominated field. Professor Carrie Stephens and graduate teaching assistant Colleen Baker in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications and professor Neal Eash in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science are leading a team to interview and analyze the experiences of twelve female industry leaders in the US and Africa. “This project will help women across the world know that they are not alone, inspiring our next generations to pursue their interests with the same bravery and boldness of these remarkable trailblazers,” Stephens says.
Ag Day Salutes Award Winners
Congratulations to the 2023 award winners celebrated at Ag Day in fall 2023.
The UTIA Meritorious Service Award winner was Robert Barry (Bob) Coley (BS agriculture ’74), a veterinarian and beef cattle producer from New Market, Tennessee. Coley has served as a 4-H volunteer, member of the Governor’s Council on Agriculture and Forestry, member of the UT Beef and Forage Center advisory board and the UT Animal Science advisory board, as an adjunct clinical instructor with the College of Veterinary Medicine, and as a long-time College of Veterinary Medicine advisory board associate member.
The UTIA Horizon Award winner, veterinarian Leslie Sadeghi Brooks (DVM ’12), serves as a science and technology policy fellow for the US Agency for International Development. She also is an agricultural and livestock technical advisor for the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance with a focus on food security and climate-smart agriculture. Among her many other accomplishments, she volunteers as a governing board representative for federal (civilian) government veterinarians. Brooks lives in Maryland.
UT Extension named Kyle Owens of Carthage, Tennessee, as the 2023 Tennessee Farmer of the Year.
Through nearly twenty years of farming, his passion for agriculture, work ethic, and business sense have grown an original 32 acres of tobacco into more than 6,000 acres of corn, soybeans, and wheat, as well as tobacco, watermelons, and pumpkins.
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