Congratulations!
I am pleased please to announce that Dr. Rick Koelsch and Dr. Kathleen Lodl have been promoted from Assistant Dean to Associate Dean effective July 1, 2011. Please join me in congratulating Rick and Kathleen on this significant accomplishment!
Congratulations to Dr. Roch Gaussoin who has graciously agreed to serve the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture as Interim Head. Dr. Mark Lagrimini returned to a faculty role in plant biotechnology. This change was effective July 1, 2011. Congratulations to Roch and thank you to Mark for serving in the department head role.
In recognition of his excellent research, teaching, and extension efforts in the beef industry, effective July 1, Rick Funston is the recipient of the Wendell Burgher Beef Industry Award. This award is effective July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2013. Congratulations to Rick for this achievement!
Doug Jose is the recipient of two awards. The first is the Outstanding Extension Program Award of the Western Agricultural Economics Association for Career. The award was presented on June 29, 2011 at the Association’s annual meeting in Banff, Canada. The second is the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Distinguished Extension/Outreach Program Award for an Individual with 10 or more years’ experience. This award will be presented at the Association’s annual meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, on July 25, 2011. Congratulations to Doug for these two outstanding recognitions!
Brad Lubben was recently named the 2010 Nebraska Association of Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) Communicator of the Year. The association annually recognizes faculty or staff from IANR who communicate clearly and display exceptional expertise and professionalism in promotion, publications, news, and technology. Congratulations to Brad for this honor!
Events on Campus
As usual, June was a busy month on campus. During the last two weeks, East Campus classrooms have been full of potential UNL students, families, and stakeholders.
Big Red Summer Camps hosted 71 high school-aged youth from four different states (NE, MO, SD, IA, and PA) in seven different camps (veterinary science, entrepreneurship, film making, Culinology, 3-D animation, textiles, and geology). During the capstone events, it was fairly common to hear: “I can’t wait to come back next year,” and “I’m hoping to come to UNL when I graduate.” These camps continue to be an excellent recruitment tool; thanks to all of the faculty and staff who helped make these successful!
The PASE/Life Challenge Event involved 400 4-H’ers in animal science and/or consumer science competition. This event requires the efforts of a multitude of 4-H staff as well as campus departments; thank you! On Monday night, the Governor’s Agriculture Excellence Awards, co-sponsored by the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority and the Nebraska 4-H Foundation, were awarded to 4-H clubs from throughout the state. Recipients of these awards received $500 for the planning and implementation of local projects designed to promote agriculture education and community service.
In addition to hosting youth events, the Family, Youth, and Community Partners were also on campus this month. This group continues to advocate for youth and family programs of Extension and the College of Education and Human Sciences. Hearing about the contacts the Partners make year-round with State Senators, Board of Regents’ Members, and other decision makers reminds me of how very fortunate we are to have such outstanding support for our programs.
While these are just examples of the kinds of work that is happening, it does reinforce the value of our programmatic efforts and the high quality work each of you do. Thank you!
-- Elbert Dickey