Cohort 5 Projects

Projects for the 5th cohort were tied to the budget crisis however many are showing signs of moving past cuts but still meeting the mission to a more “today’s issues” approach. They address new subject areas and old subjects in a much more creative way. The stress of the budget crisis drove many institutions to re-engineer, restructure, and create new models
and programs. Staff and faculty review processes were transformed at several institutions taking in new inputs (funding
has gone more and more team effort, thus evaluations for P&T have to take this into account in a more systematic way). Intellectual property and the scholarship of engagement have been formally embraced at several institutions. Extension programs, statewide, have undergone major overhauls- not just in funding but also in structure, areas of expertise, and as with on-campus faculty, evaluations have been revamped. Succession planning has become real, both in academic and industrial settings. Key areas are being identified before the position becomes vacant and efforts are in place to create a system to not have 1-2 years of openness within a critical area. Individual new programs have been developed, sold, accredited and are now moving out dated courses and curriculums onto the cutting edge of the fast moving 21st century. These include: environmental health science, multiple state food safety programs, the modern on-farm dairy program,
plant sustainability including organic farming and the “green” way. Two universities have created campus-wide focuses or initiatives in Food Systems. These include team-based efforts across colleges, from agriculture to medicine. FSLI Fellows
are leading these campus-wide efforts. Global efforts have been a growth area for several institutions. These include establishing joint academic programs between an 1890 institution with universities in China and Brazil, as well as with EARTH in Costa Rica. One industrial project is building a processing plant in Haiti to locally attack malnutrition in the country’s children and creating a demand for local commodities at the same time. Policy issues have not been overlooked.
At one institution responsible conduct of research policy has been newly framed with a campus-wide awareness program
now in place.
Cohort 5 has been extremely busy coming out of the bunker to budget shortfalls and are moving into new efforts to
reinvent because it is the right thing to do, not because we have to for budget reasons.

Bill Batchelor, Auburn University
“Creation of the Auburn University Food Systems Initiative”

Linda Berlin, University of Vermont
“Moving the UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture to a Systems Approach”

Carrie Castille, Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry
“Improving the public perception of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry”

Pat Colyer, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center
“Developing a Staffing Plan for Extension Programming for the Northwest Region”

Nelson Daniels, Prairie View A & M

Susan Fritz, System Level for the University Nebraska
“Evaluation Reformation at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR)”

Lisa Guion, North Carolina State University
“Laying a Solid Foundation for Institutionalizing the Scholarship of Engagement in a Research Intensive University”

Richard Linton, The Ohio State University
“Development of a Tri-State Research/Outreach Food Safety Initiative”

Steve Martin, Mississippi State University
“Mississippi State University Extension Service Northwest Region Restructuring Plan”

Neal Merchen, University of Illinois
“Operational and Leadership Adjustments to Sustain a Dairy Program at a Major Land-grant Institution.”

Bill Randle, North Carolina A&T State University
“Developing a Plant Sustainability Major for the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science”

Mark Rieger, University of Florida
“A Vision for Statewide Undergraduate Teaching Programs”
Project Abstract
Project Statewide Programs Vision

Daniel Schmitz, Abbott Laboratories
“Malnutrition Plant in Haiti”
Haiti Project News Release

Zachary Senwo, Alabama A & M University
“Internationalizing the Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Programs at Alabama A&M University”

Christine Steele, Abbott Laboratories
“Development of a Long Term Technical (LTT) Program”

Teferi Tsegaye, Kansas State University
“Leadership and Management Projects”

Greg Wiecko, Western Pacific Tropical Research Center

Scott Willard, Mississippi State University

Charlene Wolf-Hall, North Dakota State University
“Turning an unfunded mandate into an integrated part of campus culture: Becoming the Research Integrity Officer (RIO) for Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)”