Q: What is your academic and/or professional background?
A: I majored in horticulture and I was pursing another degree in business, as well, at the University of Arkansas. But, ¾ way through my degree program I really fell in love with horticulture, science and research. So, I spent most of my junior and senior year focused on that. I‘m very interested in fruit crops in both genetics and physiology. I went to Ohio State for my master’s and Ph.D, where I studied crop physiology and statistics. My first career job was at Washington State working on fruit crops, primarily apples and cherries. I came back to the University of Arkansas and was hired as a faculty member in fruit crops, primarily apples and peaches, doing breeding, physiology and crop management. The tree fruit research program was cancelled in the late 1990s, so I shifted my program emphasis to sustainable and organic farming, as this was an emerging area. For the last 15 years I’ve focused on sustainable and organic production practices for fruit and vegetables.
Q: Did you always know that you wanted to teach? How did you become a professor?
A: I got interviewed for a magazine in 1975, and at that point in time I said my two chosen career paths were to either be a U.S. Senator or a University Professor. I chose the latter one for a number of reasons. When I was a young person, I started working at summer camp. I started as a summer camp staff member at the age of 12, and continued until I was 24. As a result, teaching young people has always been deeply important to me and something I have always done. When I was a junior or senior in college, I decided I wanted to be a research and teaching professor. My career after that has followed that trajectory. I really enjoy teaching, but I also have a very large program with multiple technicians, graduate and undergraduate students involved.
Q: What is your role within your department?
A: Within horticulture, my role is equally distributed between research and teaching. I also have this new role as the associate dean of the graduate school for international education and international programs.
Q: Can you describe the program?
A: Horticulture is a very broad discipline. It goes all the way from ornamentals and turf graft management to sales and product development of fruit, vegetable, and greenhouse crops. It’s a very broad field. It seems like no two students have the same career track. They are all doing different kinds of things, whether it be small scale production or local landscaping, working for national retail organizations, have consulting firms, or work in greenhouses, orchards or fields. My own area of work is in sustainable and organic horticulture. I’m looking at developing sustainable production patterns for farmers. I also do a lot with our farmer’s markets, trying to stimulate farmer’s markets, local food production, sale, and consumption.
Q: Are you involved in any research at the moment?
A: I’m just wrapping up a large 10-year research project on apple orchards, and a 6-year project on organic production of blackberries, raspberries and blueberries. I also have conventional and sustainable apple projects to test and develop varieties that are appropriate for farmers here. We have projects related to our farmer’s market and stimulating local food production systems. We have projects with community and school gardens. We have a lot of projects going right now.
Q: What opportunities are available to students (internships, research opportunities, assistantships, etc.)? Where can they find out about these opportunities?
A: There are several large national databases for horticulture. Our department requires every graduate to have professional work experience. An internship is a required component for their academic experience. We have doing this for 18 years. We also maintain an in house database. We are flooded with internship requests because companies from all over the United States and essentially around the world know that we require this so they funnel a lot of requests to us. Our students have a lot of opportunities to get internships. We have a relatively large percent of undergraduates perform research, both honors and non-honors students. We really encourage undergraduate involvement in research. I’m taking 4 undergraduate students to a national conference where they will present the results of their research. In terms of graduate assistantships, just this morning I had two colleagues write me asking for a good graduate assistant because they have an assistantship available. In our department, we have about a dozen assistantships, as well. We are always looking for good graduate students looking to pursue a master’s or Ph.D. that are interested in research.
Q: Where are your recent graduates now? (Employment, graduate school, etc.)
A: We have a very high employment rate upon graduation. Essentially every student that wants a job gets a job. Not all of them want a job, in fact in a lot of cases, students might change career fields as they leave college. Jobs seem to be readily available for them in what we call the green industries, the specialty crop industries and ornamental industries, sports turf, and parks and recreation is almost a vacuum for students.
Q: What are the most challenging and the most rewarding parts of your job?
A: The most challenging part is simple, it’s keeping up with email. Faculty get pulled in a lot of different directions, so the challenge is getting to focus and get the time to devote to projects. Already this morning, at 9:00 am, I’m already at 50 emails. I started receiving emails from colleagues and students at 4:45 this morning. Another challenge is finding funding. I spent a lot of time writing, preparing and managing grants. Finding that money all the time is a challenge. But, it’s also a fun challenge. The fun part of the job is how every day is unique. Every day is different, no two days are the same. I love my research, working with students, teaching, and being in the classroom. I’m really enjoying my work right now as the associate dean. I work with what I think are the two best deans on campus, Dean Needy and Dean Koski. Every day is a discovery for me.
Q: What is your best memory or favorite part of your job from your time at the U of A?
A: There are best memories every minute. Yesterday I had a couple great memories that I’ll never forget. We had a student who had applied for a study abroad scholarship to study in New Zealand. He won a competition that had about 2,000 other competitors. He was given a $15,000 scholarship to study abroad. Giving him that check on behalf of that agency and country was a memory I’ll never forget. Right before that I was teaching a sustainability, and we had fantastic discussions and students. I was so energized by that, it was a great memory. That is why I come to work every day. There are so many great memories and they happen every single day. Probably my favorite time of the year is commencement. I’ve only missed three commencements since I’ve been here. And in all cases I missed it because I was taking students overseas. I love seeing our students graduate, I cry every time.
Q: What is your favorite part about Arkansas/NWA/Fayetteville?
A: I grew up here and around the University. I just love the community of Fayetteville. It is a wonderful college community. It is pretty diverse, has diverse attitudes. It is very involved in its own politics. It is very education minded, engaging, sustainable, environmental and community minded. The fact that we have four seasons, and they are just about long enough, never too short or too long, is fantastic. I really like the Fayetteville Farmer’s market. I used to sell produce there with my father’s family farm. I love our trail system quite a bit; I walk, run and bike on the trails. I like the outdoors so I head out to go hiking, camping, canoeing and fly-fishing when I can.
Q: What is your favorite part about working with international students?
A: I have so many. My family was always a Fulbright scholar host family. So I have a number of Fulbright sisters scattered throughout the world that my family still keeps in contact with. I love being around international students, for instance going around to their events. I’m really looking forward to International Education week. From films and dinners to dance exhibitions, it is fun just being around them, they bring life and their culture to our campus. They remind me that the world is a simultaneously big and small place.
Q: Do you have any advice for prospective and/or current students?
A: When you evaluate the universities, you should not only look at the degree program, but also the quality of life that you’ll have. I think our university has a great balance of very high quality degree programs along with a very high quality of student life. It’s a college town and the area has a bit of a metropolitan feel to it, with arts, entertainment and sports that you could get in a major urban area because of our association with the Southeast Conference. A prospective student should look at the whole package: quality of life along with the academic experience. That is where our institution often rises to the top. I think so much of the learning occurs outside of the classroom. I encourage students to deeply engage in college life: 1) find an activity, student group, or special interest group and really engage in that network and build a community of friends around you and 2) engage faculty.
Q: What is your favorite quote or what motto do you live by?
A: One of my favorite is from a scientist, Richard Feynman, “I’m smart enough to know I’m stupid.” That humbles me, because it is really true. My personal motto is to always ask: “how can I help you” and to always tell people: “thank you.”
Q: What is your favorite place you’ve visited?
A: Fayetteville, Arkansas. I’ve had the opportunity to live and visit a lot of other places, but Fayetteville is home, and it will be my home. Again, it is just a perfect combination of community for me.
