CALS Perspectives Magazine Winter 2012

NC STATE UNIVERSITY

perspectives

The Magazine of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Winter 2013

Focused on the

Future New CALS Dean Richard Ri h d Linton Li

First Impressions

Within our Features is an opportunity to get to know Bill and Marsha Prestage of Prestage Farms Inc., whose recent $10 million gift endowed and renamed our Poultry Science Department as the Prestage Family Departince Sept. 15, my first day ment of Poultry Science. They talk on the job as dean of the about what motivated their gift that College of Agriculture and will fund teaching, research and ExtenLife Sciences, I have been in learning sion programs, as well as establish a mode – learning about the reach professorship in turkey physiology, and breadth of this great College nutrition and immunology. and getting to know the people We also show you around a who carry out its research, teaching Dr. Richard Linton unique and immensely valuable reand extension missions, as well as source in our Department of Biological and Agricultural the beneficiaries of its work. They share a passion and Engineering. It’s the BAE Research Shop, a full-service commitment for the vital role the College and N.C. State 7,500-square-foot facility that provides machining, University continue to play in lives of North Carolina’s fabrication and assembly of functional items — everycitizens. thing from laboratory apparatuses to tobacco balers — Since that first day’s experience at CALS Tailgate 2012, requested (and often newly imagined) by faculty memmy listening and learning itinerary has taken me across the bers, staff and graduate students for their lab or field state, from the mountains to the piedmont to the coastal work and research. plain and the coast itself and back again to the heart of the Our Features also spotlight student Becky Dobosy, a Triangle. I’ve now seen firsthand how the College reaches nutrition major who is already working to address global into all areas of the state. hunger issues, while our College Profile highlights the I’ve been impressed by the state’s diversity of agriculture 36-year Extension career of Sharon Rowland. and life sciences and the roles CALS research has played in Our News section includes reports of students travelenabling that diversity. I’m keenly aware of our essential ing to Costa Rica as Global Plant Health Interns and a role in educating and graduating tomorrow’s agricultural roundup of our latest International Programs activities; and life scientists, agribusiness leaders and agriculture tomato breeding and woodland crops research; a new professionals – those who can change the world through grant for salmonella research; an update on our Agroefforts addressing food security, biotechnology, sustainecology Education unit; and an interview with a national ability, environmental impacts of agriculture, water quality award-winning pre-vet student. and human health. And I’ve encountered in our CooperaAnd we have an array of outstanding CALS graduates tive Extension Service a network of connections, a culture profi led in our Alumni section, along with many new enof responsiveness and a tradition of impacts unparalleled at dowments announced in Giving. any other university I know.

These stories illustrate what I’ve been learning the Another rich source of information about the College past few months: the passion and engagement at the and its work for me has been Perspectives. The CALS heart of a College with both an extensive reach and magazine regularly showcases and exemplifies those grasp. research, teaching and Extension efforts, along with news about outstanding faculty, students, alumni and giving.

Richard Linton This Winter 2013 issue is a great example.

Dean Marc Hall

S

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Keep up with CALS strategic planning!

Go to: http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/strategicplan

perspectives

NC STATE UNIVERSITY

Perspectives is online at the CALS News Center: www.cals.ncsu.edu/agcomm/news-center/

The Magazine of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

FEATURES

Winter 2013 Vol. 15, No. 1 Managing Editor: Terri Leith Design and Layout: Vickie Matthews Staff Photographers: Becky Kirkland, Marc Hall, Roger Winstead Staff Writers: Dave Caldwell, Natalie E. Hampton, Terri Leith, Dee Shore, Suzanne Stanard Contributors: Erin McCrary, Ramona Herring Perspectives is published by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University.

40,000 copies of this public document were printed at a cost of $19,517, or $.49 per copy.

Printed on recycled paper.

Third Class Postage paid at Raleigh, NC 27611.

Correspondence and requests for change of address should be addressed to Perspectives Editor, Box 7603, N.C. State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7603.

Printed by TCGLegacy, Garner, N.C.

contents

William R. “Randy” Woodson, Chancellor

2 Special People, Special Gift Bill and Marsha Prestage share memories of the growth of their company – and their reasons for making a historic gift to N.C. State.

4 Listening, Learning, Leading New CALS Dean Richard Linton has hit the ground running as he gets to know the College, N.C. State and North Carolina.

6 Super Shop The BAE Research Shop is the custom fabrication place, where designs become real devices and concepts become field-ready — expertly, quickly and economically.

10 Sustained Efforts CALS student Becky Dobosy travels near and far to put nutrition, sustainable ag knowledge to work.

12 College Profile Sharon Rowland retires after a career devoted to the betterment of Cooperative Extension and the people it serves.

Richard H. Linton, Dean and Executive Director for Agricultural Programs Sam Pardue, Interim Associate Dean and Director, Academic Programs Joe Zublena, Associate Dean and Director, North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service David Monks, Interim Associate Dean and Director, North Carolina Agricultural Research Service Sylvia Blankenship, Associate Dean for Administration Keith D. Oakley, Executive Director, Advancement 919.515.2000 Celeste Brogdon, Executive Director, Alumni and Friends Society

NOTEWORTHY 14 NEWS Interns learn valuable life lessons while studying tropical plant pathology in Costa Rica • Exploring the world: Sabella leads CALS’ opportunity-filled international programs • Tradition meets innovation in CALS scientist’s tomato breeding efforts • CALS is omnipresent at 2012 State Fair • Farming the forest: CALS expert helps landowners grow crops beneath the trees • All in the family: 4-H mother and daughter have both been state presidents • Agroecology farm and program have grown and improved • Extension, teaching will play roles in research grant to combat salmonella • Word whiz: CALS student wins national medical terminology contest • Landscape design students capture ‘wild energies’

27 ALUMNI NC STATE UNIVERSITY

perspectives

The Magazine of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Winter 2013

2012-2013 CALS Distinguished Alumni, Outstanding Alumni honored • Ghostly blooms: Alum honored for orchid-breeding efforts • Can-do spirit lands Yard-Nique founder on TBJ ‘40 under 40’ list • Persistence pays for alumnus who leads CALS biotech spinoff

33 GIVING Scholarship endowment honors 4-H’s Thearon and Vanette McKinney • New CES endowments/funds announced at fall meeting • Distinguished service honored at joint foundations meeting • Wayne and Judy Skaggs create endowment for water resources and hydrology research

Focused on the

Future New CALS Dean Richard Ri h d Linton Li

The Cover: Taking the helm, Dean Richard Linton tours the state and prepares to launch a strategic planning initiative for the College. (Story, page 4) Photo by Marc Hall

Special People, Special Gift Bill and Marsha Prestage share memories of the growth of their company – and their reasons for making a historic gift to N.C. State.

by Suzanne Stanard

Suzanne Stanard

Bill and Marsha Prestage (above) are shown at their company headquarters in Clinton and (opposite) with their family and Chancellor Randy Woodson at the October announcement.

O

n the road from Michigan to South Carolina in 1960 with their three young sons and family dog packed into the car, Bill and Marsha Prestage never imagined where their journey would lead.

They were off to start a new life in Spartanburg, where Bill had landed a job.

Today, the family owns and operates Prestage Farms Inc., a massive operation that employs nearly 2,000 people, contracts with 450 independent farms and produces more than a billion pounds of turkey and pork annually.

Success has been relatively quick, but certainly not easy.

“I can remember being in the back room of our first office, with the mice scurrying around, trying to figure out how to set up our accounting systems,” Marsha Prestage remembers with a little laugh.

“We’ve worked hard, and we’re so blessed that a lot of the same peo-

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ple who helped the company get started are still with us today.”

The Prestage family – longtime N.C. State supporters – recently endowed the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Poultry Science Department with a $10 million gift that will fund teaching, research and Extension programs as well as establish a professorship in turkey physiology, nutrition and immunology. N.C. State Chancellor Randy Woodson announced the new Prestage Family Department of Poultry Science at an event in October.

“There are only six poultry science departments left in the country, and we think N.C. State is one of the best,” Bill Prestage says.

“The department has been good to us, good to our state and good to our nation, and we believe it’s important to help preserve it.”

Marsha Prestage finishes her husband’s thought, saying, “We’re also hoping we can encourage

people who might come from an agricultural background and can’t afford to go to school, people from the country who want to get right back out into agriculture, by creating opportunities for them to get a good education.”

Bill and Marsha met as teenagers in urban Michigan and, before long, were “young married people” with babies, according to Marsha.

They decided to pick up and move south when Bill was offered a sales position with feed company Central Soya. He quickly climbed the ranks, eventually promoted to a sales territory that encompassed much of North Carolina and Virginia.

It was when Bill met Otis Carroll in 1967 that the company that would become Prestage Farms took root.

“We formed a partnership selling turkeys and hogs in North Carolina and Virginia,” Bill says. “A little while after Otis passed away in 1981, we all decided to go our sepa-

in the world,” he says. “They’re honest, hard-working, good people, and the work ethic and dedication they have to food production is just unparalleled. People don’t realize how dedicated farmers are. It’s a 24-hour-a-day job, 365 days a year.”

North Carolina also is home to Prestage Foods Inc., the processing arm of the Prestage Farms of North Carolina turkey division. Alongside its corporate offices, the Prestage Farms Inc. headquarters boasts two feed mills, a warehouse, maintenance department, turkey hatchery and laboratories.

The company has four other divisions outside North Carolina: in Mississippi, South Carolina, Iowa and Oklahoma.

A

nd it’s truly a family affair.

Bill and Marsha’s son Dr. Ron Prestage, who earned a bachelor’s

Marc Hall

to its growers, most of whom are independent farmers who own their own land.

“It’s a cooperative deal,” Bill says. “At the time we got going here in Clinton, a large number of growers in this area were eager to diversify away from tobacco and raise turkeys and hogs. I bet 95 percent of those farmers are still with us today. I like to think of us as a big family.

“The people we deal with in agriculture are really the greatest people

degree in poultry and animal science from the College in 1977, is president of the Mississippi and South Carolina divisions. His wife, Dr. Cindi Prestage, graduated from Auburn University’s Veterinary School in 1982, having been admitted there after three years of undergraduate work at N.C. State. But she also is a CALS animal science alumna, completing her degree in 2008. Their daughter, Katie, works in sales and marketing at Prestage Foods, and their son Zack (a 2011

graduate of the College’s Animal Science Department) is a turkey service person in the South Carolina turkey division.

Bill and Marsha’s son Scott is vice president of the turkey division, and their son John, a 1981 graduate of the Animal Science Department, is a senior vice president with the company.

“Bill used to take the kids out with him on Saturdays calling on his customers,” Marsha says. “This exposed them to agriculture at early ages, which we believe is so important. We need to have more people interested in agriculture and understand its impact.

“We certainly want to enhance the status and impact of agriculture through our company and through our gift to the university,” she says.

“We want kids to be able to get practical degrees.”

In addition to hiring local talent, Bill points to university and community college support as a key component of the company’s growth strategy – and a big reason for its success.

“We worked with N.C. State from the get-go,” Bill says. “If we called and asked for advice, they would help with any problem we might have, from animal health to feeding systems. The Extension Service was particularly excellent.”

Marsha adds, “And the latest chapter is that the N.C. State Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences Department has been helping us with product development.

It’s a whole new world. We had no experience with processing when we decided to start that side of the business in 2004, and N.C. State has been a huge help.”

While Bill and Marsha say that their sons run the company’s day-to-day operations, there is no resting on laurels for these two.

They’ve worked hard to make an improbable dream come true, they say, and now they’re beyond happy to be able to give back.

rate ways, which worked out well for everyone. Then Marsha and I started this company, Prestage Farms, in 1983.”

The fledgling company had 28 employees at the time and quickly began acquiring and supplying other operations. Within a year, Prestage Farms Inc. set up corporate headquarters in Clinton.

“It was hilarious,” Marsha recalls. “We moved the computer up here in the back of the pickup truck with our CFO sitting with his arms wrapped around it.”

Bill says, “We brought hogs in at the same time with our first contract grower, Norwood Sumner Farms; then we started building our own farms.”

The contract grower relationship is a hallmark of the company’s success, Bill says. Prestage Farms furnishes the animals and supplies

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New CALS Dean Richard Linton has hit the ground running as he gets to know the College, N.C. State and North Carolina.

by Dave Caldwell

Listening, Learning, Leading

Suzanne Stanard

D

r. Richard Linton, named dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in mid-September, is in full-bore learning mode and feeling a bit, well, like a sponge, trying to soak in as much as he can.

Linton’s first day on the job – he succeeds Dr. Johnny Wynne, who retired in July after more than 8 years as CALS dean — was Sept.

15, which was also the date for the annual CALS Tailgate celebration.

So on the new dean’s first day, he attended Tailgate and met hundreds of College faculty, staff, alumni and friends.

Since then, Linton has been crisscrossing North Carolina and the N.C. State University campus, getting to know CALS better.

Linton comes to CALS and N.C. State from The Ohio State University, where he was chair of the Department of Food Science and Technology, the largest food science and technology program in the country. Before that, Linton, an expert in food microbiology and developing food-safety systems to reduce the risk of foodborne illness, was a professor of food

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Dean Rich Linton is shown (above) in his Patterson Hall office and (in background photo) touring the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis.

science, center director and unit leader at Purdue University.

At Purdue, Linton directed the Center for Food Safety Engineering, which provides knowledge to detect and prevent chemical and microbial food contamination. In his 17 years at Purdue, Linton also coordinated interdisciplinary and integrative efforts as an assistant and associate director with the university’s Agricultural Research Services unit.

All the new dean’s degrees — a bachelor’s in biology in 1988 and master’s and Ph.D. in food science in 1991 and 1994, respectively — are from Virginia Tech, which introduced him to N.C. State and CALS. “When I was at Virginia Tech, I visited North Carolina State many times and had a number of different projects with North Carolina State faculty,” Linton says. “So I’ve been on campus about 20 times during my career, but I never had the opportunity to tour the state.”

While Linton was familiar with N.C. State and CALS, he didn’t really know the College or the

university. Much of his focus since Tailgate and that first day on the job has been on getting to know the College and its many stakeholders around the state.

Linton says his days typically begin with a working breakfast, include meetings with various groups and individuals on and off campus throughout the day and end with as many as three evening meal meetings.

He has toured the state, stopping at the Mountain Horticultural Research and Extension Center near Asheville, the Morehead City area, the Center for Environmental Farming Systems in Goldsboro, Clinton, Wilson, Greenville, the Eastern 4-H Environmental Education and Conference Center in Columbia, the North Carolina Research Campus and Plants for Human Health Institute in Kannapolis, Charlotte, Winston-Salem and the Research Triangle Park.

“I describe it to my wife as every day I’m a sponge,” says Linton.

“And at the beginning of the day, I’m a dried sponge that tries to absorb as much information as I can.

Marc Hall

Carolina State to what they do in research, teaching, extension and international programs is outstanding. And I also think that the commitment and passion I see throughout the state from stakeholders is the same way.”

L

inton is launching a strategic planning initiative for the College, and he sees the initiative guiding CALS into the future.

“I think the biggest challenge is to be able to understand our capabilities today, to understand the future needs of agriculture and life sciences and to be able to efficiently connect the two together so that we can continue to grow upon the really good things we already do and to be able to grow into new areas where we will have the opportunities of the future,” he says.

He sees strategic planning helping “us understand who we are today and who we need to be in the future. I think it’s critically important for us to do this, and I think the time is right for this process.”

Strategic planning will fill in the details; however, Linton sees areas where it is clear that institutions like the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences can make a difference in the state’s, nation’s and world’s future.

These areas of opportunity, he says, “are likely to include things like energy and bioenergy, food safety and food security, climate change, water quality and water quantity, foods and human health, sustainability and local foods, agricultural biotechnology and the impacts of agriculture and life sciences on the environment.

“I think another opportunity that I hear as I go around the state is this growing interest and need to be able educate potential students about what agriculture and life sciences are and the job opportunities in these areas.”

Linton said the College can do a better job of recruiting the best and brightest students by explaining that agriculture and life sciences

Dave Caldwell

today are more than cows and corn and tractors.

“They (students) don’t realize that agriculture and life sciences involve genetic engineering for plant breeding. They don’t understand that it involves high-level science with ag biotechnology. They don’t realize that it means developing new technologies to process food,” says Linton.

CALS must attract the best students, Linton adds, in order to educate and graduate the next generation of agricultural scientists and workers. Without that generation, he points out, “We won’t be able to meet the world’s grand challenge, which is to feed the world in 2050,” when experts estimate food production will need to increase by 70 to 100 percent. “It is our job to meet this challenge.”

Linton’s days are on the hectic, spongy side, but, he says, “That’s what I need to do. In my first six months, it’s all about intensively listening to people and learning about what’s going on, so that I can best prepare myself to lead. And that listening needs to continue throughout my tenure as dean.

“You’ve got to listen and learn before you can lead, and I think leadership is about providing opportunities, providing opportunities for faculty and staff and students on campus and providing opportunities for us to grow as a state in agriculture and life sciences. And that’s what I think my job should be all about.”

Some nights when I get home, that sponge is so saturated with new information, that if you try to pick up anything more, the brain has a hard time processing it all. But that’s OK, there is always a new morning.”

Linton says he has been pleasantly surprised by the diversity of North Carolina agriculture and life sciences and the connections that link CALS throughout the state.

“I understand the ag and life sciences system very well,” he says.

“But I come from states that are not nearly as diverse as North Carolina. That’s what makes this opportunity so interesting.

“Certainly before coming to North Carolina State to interview, I looked at what was offered relative to agriculture and life sciences.

But you really have to come and you really need to visit the state to understand the breadth of all the different commodity groups, the ag biotech industry and the life science-related industries. So, yes, I read about it, but I’ve really come to understand the potential and the possibilities by making visits around the state.”

And then there’s North Carolina Cooperative Extension, the university’s premier outreach effort.

“I think my biggest surprise — and it’s been a good surprise — is there’s a phenomenal network here with Cooperative Extension and its positive connection to stakeholders and the community,” Linton says.

“I think what I’ve been most surprised about is when I go out and visit in the state and go to different meetings, how critical the outreach effort of Cooperative Extension is and how connected people feel to the university. At the other landgrant institutions that I’ve been at, I’ve not seen nearly that connection with community and connection with stakeholders. North Carolina State is different.”

He has also been impressed by the commitment he has seen on and off campus.

Says Linton, “I think the commitment of people here at North

In October, Linton, accompanied

by Dr. Anthony LeBude, toured the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center.

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Super Shop The BAE Research Shop is the custom fabrication place, where designs become real devices and concepts become fieldready – expertly, quickly and economically.

by Terri Leith Terri Leith photos

‘W

e’ve built maybe thousands of different items over here. Two are seldom the same,” says David Buffaloe, instrument shop supervisor for the research shop in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering in N.C. State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

He’s talking about the vast range of products, the devices and designs that come out of the shop where he’s worked for 36 years.

“This shop is very beneficial to the university,” he says. “People bring their thoughts, designs, stuff they need for the labs, items they thought were irreparable. We can save them some money and get them going.”

The BAE Research Shop, located in N.C. State’s Weaver Labs, is a full-service 7,500-square-foot facility that provides machining, fabrication and assembly of functional items and prototype equipment for clientele in BAE, CALS and throughout the university. Products are requested by faculty members, staff and graduate students to aid

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them in their lab or field work and research. For everything from laboratory apparatuses to tobacco balers, the shop fabricates parts and prototypes from ferrous and non-ferrous metals, wood and all types of plastic materials.

While there are some other shops on campus, the BAE shop is unique for a number of reasons.

First, size matters: Because the BAE Research Shop is one of the largest work areas on campus, with extra-large garage door entry, projects are not restricted by height Terri Leith

Buffaloe displays the wire that performs the electrically charged precision cutting on the multi-axis CNC Electrical Discharge Machine (EDM).

Shown (bottom to top) are the BAE shop woodcut machine, David Buffaloe at the CNC lathe, Steve Cameron at the CNC vertical milling machine, and a monitor showing a computergenerated 3-D image of a newly designed tool.

and weight. Then there is the specialized equipment, including the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) vertical milling machine, used for complex 3-dimensional, 3-axis applications, and the multiaxis CNC wire Electrical Discharge Machine (EDM), the only one of its kind operating at N.C. State.

And finally there is the staff of highly skilled instrument makers who execute the extreme high-precision machine work that is regularly required. Buffaloe works with two fulltime staff members, Ken Coats and Steve Cameron, who are specialized in the fabrication manufacturing industry. Together they take the device concepts brought in to them and make them reality.

“We’ve had people come in and draw things on a paper towel and say, ‘This is what I want,’” Buffaloe says. “So we sit down with them and design it out and take it to the computer and generate a 3-D work-

Courtesy David Buffaloe

David Buffaloe (left) shows a V-notch weir, cut on the EDM, for use in water-flow measurement. Below is a portion of an airplane wing mold during the milling process. At bottom is the BAE shop-built garden scooter designed to give farmers with disabilities more mobility in the field.

Terri Leith

ing drawing (via CAD/CAM/3-D software). From that we can generate a machine program that can be fed into our CNC milling machine, CNC lathe and/or our EDM machine.”

The EDM is used to cut intricate shapes in hard and soft metals and “will basically cut or burn anything that will conduct electricity,” says Cameron, who displays an item the shop fashioned on the EDM. It’s a tiny, propeller-shaped valve for a pulse-jet engine, with a material thickness less than the width of a hair.

The EDM uses an electrically charged wire, of .010 in. diameter, to make its cuts by electrically machining away conductive material.

It can be used to make multiple angle cuts such as those found in gears and sprockets, or geometric shapes and curved lines, such as specialty surgical and medical tools, as well as parts and equipment used in the aerospace industry.

To illustrate the precision, Buffaloe holds up a V-notch weir made on the EDM. For this device, which is used in measuring water flow in water-control projects, the V-notch has to be a precise point made by the wire on the EDM. “It could not be precisely cut any other way,” says Buffaloe.

And ever mindful of cost efficiency, Buffaloe reveals that he was able to get this machine off state surplus from one of the community

Courtesy David Buffaloe

colleges for a fraction of its retail value.

In fact, the shop itself is “a valuable resource for saving money on lab research projects for the whole university,” he says. “For example, early summer we finished a simulated river flow device for the Biology Department for a post-doc from his sketches.

We may do several hundred such projects a year.”

He opens file folders and offers some random examples of the shop’s work.

“Here’s a neat little project I did with Biomedical Engineering — a rod insert to align the spine of a scoliosis patient, a device to bend the rod to fit the spine curvature of the particular patient,” Buffaloe says.

“And here’s a shock boat for the Biology Department, for fish

research: They shock the water and the fish come up; they can study and weigh the fish, before releasing them,” he explains. “We took the boat and outfitted it with outrigger booms and electrical tentacles — it looked like a spider. We had to manufacture the main body that held the tentacles, which were stainless steel cables that dangled into the water.”

Another memorable job was one Buffaloe’s staff did for another shop on campus, the College of Engineering’s Precision Engineering Shop, he says. “They wanted an airplane vacuum wing mold where their client could cast a wing in his lab.”

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Carolyn Mitkowski

Essentially, he says, once the BAE shop team had created the mold for the wing, the client could lay fiberglass material and resin on the mold, which had holes through which a vacuum could pull the material into the mold shape. (Those of a certain generation can perhaps visualize this as a super-sized, sophisticated version of the 1960s Mattel Toys gadget called the Vac-U-Form.)

Creating that mold “required a 3-axis movement to get that curved shape,” says Buffaloe. “So it required use of our 3-axis CNC mill.”

Other devices they’ve delivered include an adjustable infant car seat frame for a BAE senior design student; a bone fracture jig (to hold a bone in place while being mended) and a prototype surgical abdominal retractor, both for the College of Veterinary Medicine; and a sweet potato vine snatcher, a biomass torrefaction unit and a charcoal grinder, all for the BAE Department’s Dr. Michael Boyette.

A recent project designed by Boyette and built in the research shop is a garden scooter. “The scooter is a collaborative four-year USDA grant project with N.C. A&T State University, East Carolina University and N.C. State to give farmers with disabilities a means of being more mobile in the field, garden or around the farm,” Buffaloe says. “Unique features include a sliding rear support frame, which can be adjusted for varying row widths. It’s totally self-propelled and runs on an electric motor in which the battery is solar-charged.”

According to Boyette, he and many colleagues, not only in BAE 8

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but throughout CALS, could not be nearly as productive without the continuing help of the BAE Research Shop. “Agricultural and biological engineering is more than anything the practical application of science to solve real problems. Despite a lot of planning, we often do not know from one day to the next what challenges will confront us,” Boyette says. “Consequently, we have had to remain nimble in our responses to the problems that come our way. More often than not this has required us to build something fast. The harvest season is short and comes only once a year.

“Having the great fabrication capability of BAE’s Research Shop, which includes skilled mechanics as well as the most modern machines, has often allowed us to go from concept to field ready in a matter of days.”

Dr. Timothy Appelboom, BAE research associate, also has worked extensively with the research shop as associate team member of the Soil and Water Management Group, working in the areas of watershed hydrology and water quality.

“We are very fortunate to have a fabrication shop affiliated with our department and College,” Appelboom says. “There are many projects where the equipment needed to implement, enhance or monitor a study just does not exist or needs some adaptation to fulfill the requirement of the study – or replacement parts are no longer available. There are also cases where a researcher just needs a lot of one item. The BAE Research Shop is more than capable of fulfilling any of these needs with experience in almost all materials (metal, wood, plastic, etc.).”

Items of all sizes, shapes and requirements are machined and built in the BAE shop for the clients that request them. Shown here are automatic sample acidifiers (left), designed to treat water samples, as they are taken, to keep the pH levels within the needed range; a gasifier engine generator set (below) built to demonstrate that it could be fueled with inexpensive, renewable charcoal for the production of electrical power; and (bottom) a set of shock boat spider electrodes – electrical tentacles built and outfitted onto a boat used in fish research.

Courtesy Mike Boyette

Appelboom notes that his experiences with the BAE Research Shop have been very positive.

“They have never let me down,” he says. “Even if I use my ‘Crayola’ graphics package, as they call it, to draw something up to have made, they seem to be able to interpret it and end up with what I wanted.”

He offers as example a project for which his group is designing a new water control structure. “The Courtesy David Buffaloe

A

tour of the shop floor gives a glimpse of the diversity and precision of the work done here.

There’s the radial drill, used for drilling holes in large parts; a recently acquired CNC lathe for turning cylindrical parts and which has capabilities for short production runs; the precision surface grinder

that grinds metals perfectly flat for making molds from heat-treatable metals; and the CNC vertical milling machine, where the airplane wing molds were made. On this, the shop also can do short production runs of identical items, such as the custom O-ring railings – used for soil and water erosion control – that are currently in process.

In the midst of it all, a computer monitor displays a 3-D visualization of a newly designed custom tool — a gadget used to remove a sprinkler head without damaging the sprinkler — to be made via lathe and milling operations.

These processes have produced a bin full of plastic orange lab bottle caps modified with tubing holes. They’ve also enabled the slicing of a new type of stainless steel, developed by the College of Engineering, so hard it required the BAE shop’s EDM to cut it.

Buffaloe recalls that when he first began working at the shop “we were doing a lot of commodity-driven mechanization items, for blueberry, cotton, tobacco production, etc. However, these days, it seems that we’re going more environmental – soil and water, biofuels, biomass, that type of thing.”

Still, he believes that more campus staff could and should use the shop. “I often feel that people don’t know we’re over here,” he says.

But Appelboom, a satisfied customer, is doing his part to get the word out.

“I really appreciate our shop and want others to know of its importance to not only our department’s research, but others on campus as well, and the high quality work that they do,” he says. “When appropriate, I have them place their shop ‘Custom Fabrication by’ sticker on the item, such as on the new water control structure prototype that they worked on.

“I know they are proud of their work, and I definitely want people who see something that they have made to know who did the fabrication.”

MAKING USE OF THE BAE RESEARCH SHOP requires just a few basic steps, says Buffaloe.

“Clients should request a consultation meeting with the shop supervisor to discuss the aspects of the project. If the client does not have a CAD-generated drawing, a sketch with detailed measurements will be needed,” he says. “The client may be advised as to any needed changes in design or material selection that may be needed to achieve the final end product during the meeting. If needed, we can transfer sketches to ProE CAD/CAM software that can be loaded into our CNC machines.”

To generate the work request, clients will need to provide a sixdigit FAS account number and fivedigit project ID number, the Project Leader or PI’s name, departmental bookkeeper’s name and the campus box or billing address. The client will be given an estimated time of when the shop should complete the project and it can be picked up.

“Work requests are completed on a first-come basis, unless extreme circumstances arise to warrant moving a job up,” he says. “If needed, a good-faith cost estimate can be prepared on the labor and material.

“The work order is then assigned to one of our instrument makers, who are craftsmen of their trade.

Our end result and ultimate goal is a satisfied client and successful results of their efforts.”

BAE Research Shop built a prototype for me based on the drawings I provided and discussed with them. They had to mill several of the parts because they were of a new design. The milled parts then had to be remilled because the manufacturers of the seals we were going to use had quite a bit of variability in their diameter. Without the BAE Research Shop, this would have been a nightmare to get done,” he says.

“With most research, it takes several iterations to get a design finalized. After testing something in the field we find small changes that need to be done to either make the design more efficient or durable. Having a research shop that can work on the original design to the modifications is invaluable to getting things completed to a final design.”

Appelboom says that the great value of the shop for CALS is that “anyone in the College can easily have items needed for research quickly and inexpensively made without a lot of wasted time looking for a shop that will: 1) be willing to make a single specialty item, 2) have an understanding of its use to know if what they are making will work or not and 3) not charge a fortune due to small specialty work needed. This leads to faster experiment setup and successful completion.

“Having a shop with this type of expertise is really essential to our department. Without their skill and understanding of what we are trying to do, a lot of what we do would either require a lot of time, effort and higher costs working with an outside machine shop, or just not be possible.”

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Sustained Efforts CALS student Becky Dobosy travels near and far to put nutrition, sustainable ag knowledge to work.

by Dee Shore

Becky Kirkland

Becky Dobosy, shown above and opposite at work in greenhouses and orchards, says she plans a career “where the fields of community nutrition and sustainable agriculture intersect.”

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hen it comes to addressing issues related to hunger in developing nations, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences nutrition major Becky Dobosy is not sitting still.

The junior has traveled near and far to grow her knowledge of nutrition and sustainable agriculture and to put it to work. She has helped indigenous people in Guatemala address issues related to food and health. She’s visited world food and agriculture agencies in Rome. And, most recently, she spent a summer serving as intern at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) in Goldsboro.

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“My passions don’t lie with nutrition for optimal performance or athletics but for survival and day-today life,” Dobosy says. “I am really interested in international development as it relates to nutrition and sustainable agriculture, and so I’m trying to find a career where the fields of community nutrition and sustainable agriculture intersect.”

Dobosy’s interest in nutrition and agriculture is rooted in childhood experiences with a family garden. And a church mission trip she took while in high school to a Nicaraguan orphanage sparked her passion for working internationally.

In Nicaragua, she saw firsthand the important role that nutrition plays in learning, she says, and she realized that could combine her interests in international development, nutrition and sustainable agriculture into a career.

Dobosy cites research that shows that malnutrition, especially early in life, slows brain development.

“Nutrition not only helps you be healthy, it also helps you learn,” she says. “And people who can learn and are not held back by hunger or diseases are able to do more for their community and overcome problems – or avoid problems altogether – and thus help their communities develop.”

Thus, nutrition education can give “people the tools to make change in their own communities and not rely on food or help from the outside,” she says.

It’s something Dobosy saw at work in Panajachel, Guatemala, where she spent the summer of 2011. The trip, offered through N.C. State University’s social work program, combined classwork with service learning. Dobosy was as-

Becky Kirkland

Dobosy participated in that Rome spring break trip last year, getting the chance to visit with the World Food Programme, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. In spring 2012, she’ll be organizing and leading that trip with another student.

The hard work will be worth it, Dobosy says, if she’s able to help make a difference in even a few people’s lives.

“The problem of hunger in the world is definitely bigger than any one person can address, but there are so many efforts out there right now, and I would like to be involved in at least one of them in some way, making it more sustainable and more driven by local people,” she says.

“I don’t know if I’m going to look at the world and see my impact, but I at least hope to leave my fingerprints in a community or two.”

Becky Kirkland

signed to work with a nonprofit group called Mayan Families.

“I worked with their nutritional program, so I worked with women who could not breastfeed. We had a program for diabetics who had to use food-based practices to control their insulin levels. And we had a club for ancianos – a seniors club – and they get meals every Monday through Friday,” she says.

“It was my first experience with field work – hands-on, in relationship to the community. And I really loved that, so that’s where I’m hoping to end up someday.

“When every day I could go into my internship and think, ‘Yes, more work!’ — that’s when you know you are in the right place,” she recalls.

Dobosy was also able to merge her interests in nutrition and agriculture this past summer at CEFS, where she spent eight weeks as one of a diverse group of interns from across the United States and abroad. “Everyone has different interests, but we come together with a passion for sustainable agriculture,” she says.

CEFS is a joint agricultural research and extension program of N.C. State, N.C. A&T State University and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Summer interns learn about sustainable agriculture concepts and practices from CEFS faculty and staff and through hands-on farm

work, lectures and discussions, community engagement, and field trips to local farms and markets.

Dobosy found the community engagement work particularly rewarding: She and other interns led a Junior Master Gardeners program in Goldsboro, teaching the school-age participants about agriculture, healthy eating and cooking and working with them in a garden. And she also got to join area high-school students as they worked in a community garden to earn money.

The CEFS experience confirmed for Dobosy the influence local, sustainable agriculture can have on nutrition.

“Sustainable agriculture isn’t normally integrated into a nutrition education, but for me with the international interest I have, you can’t take it out. If you are working in a community that’s agriculturally based, you can’t improve nutrition, or even suggest improvements, unless you have knowledge of agriculture and you involve agriculture,” she explains. “And if it’s not healthy for the people and the environment, it’s not going to last.”

As Dobosy looks ahead to the next steps on her journey toward a career in nutrition and community development, she has a full plate: As she works toward her nutrition degree, she’s also tackling minors in agroecology and Spanish. She’s also continuing her involvement in the Christian organization Young Life, coaching cross country at Panther Creek High School in Cary, and planning an alternative spring break trip to international foodand agriculture-related organizations in Rome.

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Becky Kirkland

College Profile Sharon Rowland retires after a career devoted to the betterment of Cooperative Extension and the people it serves.

by Suzanne Stanard

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rom a very early age, Sharon Rowland knew what she wanted to do when she grew up: work for North Carolina Cooperative Extension and 4-H. And now, having recently ended an Extension career that spanned nearly four decades, she has made a huge difference in the lives of individuals and communities throughout the state. Rowland retired in November as a well-known and beloved leader in Extension advancement who focused more on the relationships she created than the dollars she raised.

“It was never about me,” she says. “It was always about everyone working together.”

Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Bakersville, Rowland is the oldest of five girls. She and her family lived on an apple orchard established by her grandfather in the early 1900s, after he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in horticultural science and pomology, respectively, from N.C. State. He

12 perspectives

also was the first Extension agent in Mitchell, Madison and Clay counties.

During Rowland’s childhood, her father ran the orchard, and her mother taught school. Rowland and her sisters were active in 4-H, and she participated in state congress and served a term as state vice president.

Extension was ever-present in their lives.

So it was a no-brainer for Rowland to leave home for college with the goal of joining the Extension ranks. After graduating in 1977 from UNC-Greensboro with her bachelor’s degree in home economics education, she stepped right into her first Extension position as a 4-H agent in Union County.

“I always knew I wanted to be an agent,” she says. “Our family had had good relationships with agents in the county, and during that era you did a lot of things with your county Extension office. My

mom was a volunteer, and when you went to State 4-H Congress, your parents didn’t go. The agent took you.”

In her first job, Rowland worked with her fellow agents and a sizeable volunteer corps to create special interest programs and curricula for Union County youth. After six years in that position, she moved to Raleigh to join the state Extension staff as a specialist in 1983. Her primary responsibilities were managing the 4-H awards program and helping develop curricula. At the same time, Rowland began work toward her master’s degree in adult and community college education, which she earned from N.C. State in 1986.

“Dalton Proctor and I worked with subject-matter specialists on the N.C. State campus to help them write curricula that was age-appropriate,” she says. “I also worked closely with Dr. Barbara Garland as a co-chair of the National Network for Health, which gave me an op-

special projects, hosting events — essentially rolling up her sleeves and digging in.

“In relationship fund raising, you have to go where the people are,” Rowland says. “That’s key.”

In 2004, she was promoted to director of the Cooperative Extension Foundation, which presented a whole new world of challenges and opportunities.

“It was a relatively new foundation, so we were really working on helping people understand what Extension is and then helping them find a natural fit,” Rowland says.

In this position, she and her staff raised millions of dollars for all Cooperative Extension programs.

And it is because of her leadership that new facilities have been built throughout the state and all sorts of

‘In relationship fund raising, you have to go where the people are. That’s key.’

In 1999 she joined the Cooperative Extension Foundation in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences as director of development for 4-H. There she established a fund-raising philosophy that has remained the same since day one.

“What you want to do in fund raising is make sure that the donors’ needs are being met and you’re finding a way to make their passion a reality,” Rowland says.

“You have to make sure it’s a good fit.”

She said if she ever met with a potential donor and realized that his or her goals didn’t match that of the organization, she would help the donor explore other opportunities.

You’d have been hard-pressed to find Rowland at her desk on any given day during her years with Extension. She traversed the state, meeting with donors, prospects and community leaders, assisting with

new opportunities – from academic scholarships to endowments for nutrition education – have been created for North Carolina citizens.

Rowland is most proud of the Campaign for the Counties, a massive grassroots effort she helped launch about six years ago to raise funds at the local level for county Extension offices. Through the Campaign for the Counties, Extension has established 357 different funds that provide opportunities for more than 890 educational programs, scholarships and initiatives.

“I’ve always believed that Extension starts locally,” she says, “and the campaign created wonderful opportunities for us to help provide the tools necessary for the counties to be able to raise funds for their own programs or positions.”

Rowland credits much of the success of the Campaign for the Counties to the people around her,

especially her staff and her team of regional development directors who work with communities all over the state.

“It’s also about the volunteers and agents at the county level who are so passionate about their programs and the difference they make,” Rowland says.

“You just smile when you think about these people,” she says.

“Especially our staff — they’re phenomenal. Everywhere I’ve been I’ve worked with a great team of people. I’ve been very, very blessed to have great mentors from the very beginning of my career … district directors, state specialists, co-workers, and leaders like Keith Oakley, Jon Ort and Joe Zublena.”

Also under Rowland’s leadership, new foundations were created for Family and Consumer Sciences (in 2005) and the Extension and Community Association (in 2010).

She also helped lead campaigns and celebrations for the 4-H and FCS centennials.

When asked why she decided to retire, Rowland becomes mistyeyed.

“I’ve thought for a long time that it would be very hard for me to retire, and I’ve been really concerned and prayed about it,” she says.

“And as a result, I just knew that somehow I would know it was the right time. There’s a transition period for everything in life, and this transition really feels natural.”

Rowland says she most looks forward to spending more time with her husband and two sons, as well as her extended family.

At the fall joint meeting of the Extension foundations, Dr. Joe Zublena, associate dean and Extension director, presented Rowland with a farewell gift and said, “Few of us can say that we’ve made a place better, but Sharon can.

Extension is better because of Sharon.”

portunity to work with specialists from all across the country who were developing educational materials for at-risk children and families and sharing them in electronic formats.”

While developing those grants and working on program endowments for 4-H, Rowland discovered how critical resource development is for an organization such as Cooperative Extension.

“We worked to save programs that would no longer be offered,” Rowland says. “Dr. Mike Davis, former state 4-H leader, and I visited potential donors to share the 4-H story and to encourage gifts for scholarships, awards, camps and innovative programs. We needed to be sure those programs would continue.”

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noteworthy

NEWS

Interns learn valuable life lessons while studying tropical plant pathology in Costa Rica ary Lewis spent six weeks in the summer of 2012 traveling around Costa Rica working on research designed to shed light on one of the most important diseases affecting bananas. While her focus was the fungal disease black sigatoka, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences student says the experience taught her just as much – or more – about what it takes to work in a foreign country and to interact with people from other cultures.

Lewis was one of seven students selected to participate in last year’s Global Plant Health Interns program. CALS’ Dr. Jean Ristaino, William Neal Reynolds Distingiushed Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, directs the program. The goal, she said, is to immerse students in the subject of tropical agriculture research.

“It’s about getting them excited about doing science and about doing work in the developing world,” she added.

Ristaino, who is off campus this year while she serves as a Jefferson Science Fellow at the U.S. Agency for International Development, gets support in running the program from co-director Dr. Margaret Daub, head of the Department of Plant Biology and also a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor. Three-year grant funding comes from the International Research Experience for Students in the Global Plant Health program of the National Science Foundation.

Most of the participating students are from N.C. State, but the program is open to any upper-level 14 perspectives

Courtesy Jean Ristaino

M

Dr. Jean Ristaino (left) and CALS students in the Global Plant Health Interns program spent six weeks in Costa Rica, where they joined students and faculty members from the University of Costa Rica.

undergraduate or graduate student with an interest in tropical plant health.

Ristaino said the internship program not only benefits students, it also has implications for U.S. agriculture and U.S. consumers.

“The program has significance for American agriculture because many of the pathogens that the students are studying are problems both in Central America and the United States,” Ristaino said. “And some are on products, such as bananas, that we import as food into the United States.”

Ristaino began the internship program in 2011. Selected students take a graduate-level tropical plant pathology course in the spring.

They learn about diseases of various tropical crops while also gaining an understanding of the politi-

cal and social issues farmers in the developing world face.

The interns then spend six weeks in a fully funded, hands-on summer research internship in Costa Rica before finishing up with a fall special problems research course.

Faculty mentors from the University of Costa Rica and N.C. State begin working with the students before the students set foot in Costa Rica, Ristaino explained.

With their mentors’ help, the students write up a research plan before their summer internships begin and then at the end of the internship they write a research report and do a presentation that is shared with their fellow interns and the University of Costa Rica and then posted on the program’s website.

The other interns are still undergraduates now but all would like to go on to graduate school, Ristaino said. “Through the internship, these students become engrossed in the science, and they really enjoy it,” she said.

As Lewis did, the other students learned life lessons beyond their laboratory work.

“Some of these students have had travel (opportunities) before, but many had not been out of the country before. They learn a lot about the culture and the people of the country, plus they are learning plant pathology and issues involved in doing agricultural research in a developing country,” Ristaino said.

“I think it’s a big eye-opener for

many of the students who haven’t left the United States.”

Lewis had done two summer internships before the one she did in Costa Rica, but she’d never been to a non-English-speaking country.

“I thought it would be good to step out of my comfort zone. Now, having experienced the culture shock that comes with going to another country, I feel like I can handle myself better when going other places,” Lewis said. “I know how to cope.” — Dee Shore For more information on the Global Plant Health Interns program, contact Bridget Lassiter (bridget_lassiter@ncsu. edu) or visit the website at http://go.ncsu. edu/globalplanthealthinterns.

Exploring the world: Sabella leads CALS’ opportunity-filled international programs

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r. John Sabella already had a at the Universidad Nacional de long history of work in interAgricultura (UNA) in Catacamas, national agriculture when he was Honduras, and as international appointed last spring to serve as programs director at the Rodale interim assistant dean for internaInstitute. tional programs in the College of He is also co-founder of BIOAgriculture and Life Sciences. Less Uruguay, a sustainable agriculture than a year into the job, he is turning paper agreements with international institutions into boots-on-theground working projects involving N.C. State University students and faculty members.

Sabella, Dr. John Sabella (center) works with students on a who is a CALS sustainable agriculture project in Honduras. alumnus in agricultural and extension educaresearch and extension center tion, brings to the job more than 25 in northern Uruguay. In 2007, a years of international work. This group of CALS students, faculty includes service as a Peace Corps and Extension agents visited BIOvolunteer in Sierra Leone, as a Uruguay as part of a sustainable professor of sustainable agriculture agriculture tour in the country.

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Courtesy John Sabella

The research topics vary, depending on the students’ interests and the expertise of their mentors.

Topics chosen by the 2012 interns included nematodes affecting Costa Rican crops, Panama disease of bananas, water relations in bean cultivars and downy mildew races on cucurbits.

Ristaino chose to collaborate on the project with the University of Costa Rica because several faculty members and administrators had earned degrees from N.C. State.

“I’ve had three graduate students who are on the faculty now, and the dean of the college is an N.C. State graduate,” she said. “We have this Wolfpack South and Central America connection there.”

With the support of her contacts at the university and with agricultural companies such as Dole Food Co., Ristaino has for years offered a weeklong study-abroad trip as part of the tropical plant pathology course. The trip includes tours of coffee, banana, pineapple, tropical fruit, cacao and vegetable farms throughout Costa Rica.

More than 50 undergraduate and graduate students, as well as county Cooperative Extension faculty members, have participated in that tour, including, now, the global health interns. For Mary Lewis, the trip was a highlight of her Costa Rican experience. So, too, were trips to beaches and other tourist areas away from the university campus in San Pedro.

Lewis spent her internship working with Dr. Luis Gomez Alpizar, who earned his CALS Ph.D. in plant pathology under Ristaino in 2004. With his help, Lewis said, “I learned how to do fungal culturing from infected bananas, which was something I hadn’t worked with before.”

Lewis’ internship came between her May graduation from N.C. State with a degree in plant biology and the start of her graduate degree studies in plant pathology, also at N.C. State.

Natalie Hampton

“You don’t have to make a case for international programs and globalization at the university now,” he said. “Our faculty and students are asking, ‘Where are the opportunities?’”

One answer to that question, Sabella says, In October, student participants in the Fulbright Global is developing Food Security Seminar toured the Lake Wheeler Road Field action plans Laboratory education units. around formal memoranda of understanding (MOU) that N.C. State has signed As associate director of the over the years with universities North Carolina Southern Coastal from around the world.

Agromedicine Institute at East CarIn 2010, CALS and N.C. State olina University, 2002-2006, Sabelsigned an agreement with the Unila worked closely with colleagues versity of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriat N.C. State and N.C. A&T State culture in Zagreb, Croatia (FAZ), universities. He was teaching at similar to a “college” at N.C. State.

UNA in 2011 when N.C. State’s There have been several student Shelton Leadership Center asked if and faculty exchanges with FAZ, he would talk with a group of stuand the program got a boost when dents preparing for a service trip to two doctoral students visited this Honduras. summer to explore additional opSabella spoke with the group portunities for involvement. In several times and was invited to October, Aaron Fox and Suzanne travel with the students in June O’Connell presented a seminar to 2011. Six months later, as Dr. Paul showcase what they had learned Mueller prepared to retire as asabout Croatia and how students sistant dean of CALS International and faculty could engage in some Programs, Sabella was asked to of the newly developed educational take on the leadership role. programs being taught in English “My job is to make the office and other research programs there. useful, important and a clearingThey proposed a three-week agrihouse for the College’s internaculture-focused study abroad tour tional efforts,” Sabella said. He also that would begin at the University wants to integrate CALS’ internaof Zagreb and include research tional efforts more closely with the centers, farms, historic and cultural larger university’s international sites from the country’s diverse programs. geographic regions.

Now is a good time to move CALS was also a major player forward, Sabella says, with a new in October when N.C. State hosted dean – Dr. Richard Linton – in the U.S. Department of State’s CALS, food security issues becomFulbright Global Food Security ing more important and the uniSeminar. More than 55 Fulbright versity leading through the Global students from around the world Health Initiative and Global Trainparticipated in the five-day seminar ing Initiative. at N.C. State. The seminar, orga16 perspectives

nized by the university’s Global Training Initiative, included guest speakers, tours of research facilities and even a visit to the State Fair.

During the week, the students toured research facilities at N.C. State’s Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory education units, including the new dairy, the feed mill and swine production unit. Sabella said the students were impressed with what they saw at N.C. State.

As leader of CALS International Programs, a significant amount of Sabella’s time is devoted to a partnership with a Wake County church to improve agricultural production in Honduras. In the last year, St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church came to the College to ask for assistance with a long-running project.

“The church members realized they wanted to do something in agriculture,” Sabella said. “We have the support of the church, which has been working in this community for years. And this project is changing our own students’ lives.”

N.C. State is now involved in two projects in the area of Patuca, Olancho, Honduras, with support from UNA, where Sabella taught.

One effort involves direct extension work with growers, who are mainly women. Another project involves a farm at a local agricultural high school, which is used as a demonstration center for field days and other activities.

“Our own project there – a sustainable agriculture project – is making a contribution in a remote part of the country,” Sabella said.

For N.C. State, the Honduras projects offer the opportunity to share experience in sustainable agriculture, helping establish sustainable grazing practices that protect fragile slopes and waterways, introducing more goats and fewer cattle, as well as valuable trees and cash crops like coffee.

In August, a group of students visited Honduras on a work trip, and another group will participate in an alternative spring break trip

there in March through the university’s Center for Student Leadership, Ethics and Public Service.

In addition to involving campus faculty, Sabella would like to see Cooperative Extension agents also get involved in international work of CALS. “Extension has a lot of offer internationally,” he said. “Coun-

tries like Honduras don’t have an extension service.”

Recent agreements signed by the university offer continuing opportunities, include MOUs with the University of Adelaide in south Australia and with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

And Sabella is also interested

in reaching out to Sierra Leone, where he was a Peace Corps volunteer. Students and faculty will have many new opportunities to explore the world, sharing their knowledge and learning from others.

— Natalie Hampton

Dee Shore

Tradition meets innovation in CALS scientist’s tomato breeding efforts

Dee Shore

Dr. Dilip Panthee is focused on developing tomato cultivars with the traits North Carolina growers need most.

U

sing a combination of new tools and time-honored techniques, Dr. Dilip Panthee is carrying on N.C. State University’s strong tradition in plant breeding, developing hardier, higher-yielding plants for North Carolina’s $30-million-a-year tomato industry.

N.C. State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has the nation’s largest university plant breeding program. Panthee, an assistant professor of horticultural science, proudly follows in the footsteps of Dr. Randy Gardner, a retired breeder credited with developing the cultivars used on some 60 to 75 percent of the vineripe tomatoes grown in the Eastern United States.

When Panthee joined the faculty nearly five years ago, he brought skills in molecular marker-assisted breeding that he honed as a doctoral student and post-doctoral researcher at the University of Tennessee. And he came with a passion for and understanding of tomatoes that he gained during his early career as a breeder in Nepal, his home country.

Working at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River, Panthee focuses his efforts on developing tomato breeding lines and cultivars with three traits: disease resistance, fruit quality and stress tolerance.

That’s because, in a survey the scientist conducted at the start of

his tenure at N.C. State, these three traits were the ones North Carolina growers reported needing the most.

To help address industry problems, Panthee takes a multifaceted approach — part conventional breeding, part molecular markerassisted selection (MAS). MAS isn’t genetic engineering; it’s simply a breeding short-cut that’s especially helpful when it comes to developing disease-resistant varieties using DNA-based markers.

In conventional breeding methods, scientists would inoculate plants with a disease to see which ones are resistant, but that runs the risk of spreading the disease, Panthee explains. However, with MAS, scientists can look for what are called markers – sequences of nucleotides that make up a segment of DNA – that are near the genes of interest in the genome.

To develop a tomato resistant to tomato mosaic virus, for example, Panthee has identified the molecular marker that is tightly linked winter 2013

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susceptible and resistant varieties are exposed to Pseudomonas syringae, which causes bacterial speck.

“We want to see what types of proteins are transcribed and how they are expressed and how they behave in resistant and susceptible lines,” Panthee says. “And the approach we are using can be used to explore interactions between other pathogens and other plants – for example, rice or pepper or corn.”

Making sure that such research has practical significance for North Carolina growers is, in the end, what Panthee’s breeding program is all about.

“The best approach,” he says, “is to develop high-yielding varieties while minimizing post-harvest losses. That increases the amount of marketable fruit, which means the cost of production for our tomato growers will be less. And that means they can be competitive.”

— Dee Shore

CALS is omnipresent at 2012 State Fair The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences again had a significant presence at the N.C. State Fair — whether it was Cooperative Extension personnel manning a station at the Cultivating a Career exhibit, the always popular N.C. State Howling Cow Ice Cream booth (courtesy of the CALS Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences), CALS students teaching kids about farm animals or fashioning elaborate horticulture displays, Dr. Tom Monaco’s prize-winning peppers or a plethora of 4-H entries in a range of competitions. Here are samples of the many ways the College contributes to the fair.

Suzanne Stanard

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Suzanne Stanard

hybrids that are taste-test winners and would work well for organic farmers. And with Dr. Penny Perkins-Veazie of the college’s Plants for Human Health Institute in Kannapolis, Panthee is looking at ways to produce tomatoes with high levels of lycopene, a health-enhancing antioxidant. They are getting close, he says, to releasing a grape hybrid line with just such qualities.

While Panthee’s work focuses on tomatoes bred especially for North Carolina’s growing conditions, he’s also advancing the science of plant breeding as well as our understanding of molecular-level plant-pathogen interactions.

With scientists from Cornell University, he is collaborating on a $4 million National Science Foundation-funded research project designed to shed light on the proteinbased war that takes place when pathogens infect a plant. The study focuses on what happens when

Terri Leith

with the TMV resistance gene, so as he breeds successive generations of plants, he selects only plants that contain that marker.

“I keep on selecting plants that contain the TMV resistance genes and discard the plants that do not have TMV resistance,” he explains.

“That way I can enhance these generations quickly.”

Panthee expects to begin releasing disease-resistant cultivars born of these methods within the next two or three years. Already, in collaboration with Gardner, Panthee has helped develop Mountain Merit, a high-yielding, fresh-market cultivar with resistance to late blight, tomato spotted wilt virus and rootknot nematodes, and Mountain Majesty, a large-fruited tomato with improved fruit color and resistance to tomato spotted wilt virus.

Working with his Mills River colleague Dr. Jeanine Davis, Panthee also has developed heirloom tomato

Terri Leith

Dee Shore

Farming the forest: CALS expert helps landowners grow crops beneath the trees

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Research assistant Allison Dressler (right) and Dr. Lijing Zhou study forest crops, such as the goldenseal (above).

Dee Shore

or property owners looking to find ways to earn money from their forested land, forest farming can be a promising alternative – or addition – to harvesting the trees.

And for years, Dr. Jeanine Davis has been helping these landowners make the most of that promise.

Based at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center, Davis is an associate professor of horticultural science and a Cooperative Extension specialist in N.C. State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Davis’ work focuses on optimizing organic production and introducing and developing new crops, and she is considered one of the nation’s leading experts when it comes to producing medicinal herbs in the shade beneath a forest’s treetops.

Davis co-wrote the book Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals, and she is among the national Cooperative Extension educators who contribute to a new website on forest farming (http://www.extension.org/forest_farming). The site focuses on information about high-value nontimber forest products, covering such topics as startup, best practices, markets and policies.

As the site explains, forest farming involves cultivating and managing understory crops in an established or developing forest. From forest crops, “many parts are harvested, including the roots, tubers, leaves, bark, twigs and branches, the fruit, sap and resin, as well as the wood,” the site adds.

Medicinal herbs are probably the most popular products of forest farming, Davis says, because they can bring high prices. Wildsimulated ginseng, for example, can generate more than $20,000 per half-acre after nine years, but

it is hard to grow, in part because poaching is a significant problem.

There are plenty of other alternatives, she adds, including foods such as Shiitake mushrooms, creasy greens, honey, nuts, berries, and the wild leek known as ramps. Decorative and craft-based products – things such as pine-needle baskets, wreaths made of vines, beeswax candles and evergreen garlands – can also be made from materials produced in a forest.

Davis sees interest in forest farming from three main groups: “There are established farmers who are interested in just finding a new crop.

For so many of our farmers in western North Carolina, a big portion of the land is in forest, and maybe there’s a big sloped wooded area that they have to pay taxes on so they are wondering if they can make some income from it,” she says.

“We also have new people who have moved into the region, bought some land and are interested in farming but haven’t tried it before. They see this as a way to get involved on a small scale,” she adds. “And then we have folks who own just a small piece of wooded land and who want to make a little bit of income as a sideline to their regular jobs.”

Being successful requires not only knowing how to produce and harvest woodland crops but also a willingness to work hard at marketing. “You have to work on building relationships with buyers, and for some people, that’s a very difficult job,” she says. “You have to do some homework. You have to learn about the industry, read some books, go to a few conferences. You also have to network and make connections.”

Growers also need to have patience, Davis says.

“When I do presentations on forest farming, I keep bringing up this point: When you start out in this, you have to look at it as you would any other small business,” she says. “If you were going into small business, how long would you expect it to be before you break even or make some money?

Many people will put up their hands and say five years.

“It’s going to be the same way with this: It’s going to take a while, and a lot of people don’t have that kind of patience or the financial resources to wait that long.”

Those who do venture into forest farming can produce income while they are waiting on trees to become mature enough to harvest

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ing, you have more control over the growing conditions and can get a product that’s more uniform.”

Forest farming is one aspect of western North Carolina’s natural products industry. With funding from Golden LEAF, Cooperative Extension is working with a number of agencies to help brand the region’s natural products.

“We want people to understand that if they are buying branded products from this region, they are buying high quality products,” she says.

With that grant funding, Davis has two projects, one involving Chinese herbs and the other, woodland herbs. Extension’s “major part of that is training farmers – teaching them Dr. Jeanine Davis leads the forest farming research efforts. how to grow these crops, how to harvest them Cultivating woodland crops and how to dry them,” Davis says. also takes some of the pressure When it comes to promoting off of rare and endangered plants. and supporting forest farming and Indeed, when Davis started her the larger natural products industry work with woodland botanicals in in Western North Carolina, Davis the late 1980s, goldenseal was conand Cooperative Extension have sidered an endangered species in North Carolina, but it was taken off the state list about two years ago.

“I like to think we were somewhat responsible for taking the pressure off the wild populations,” Davis says. “We worked really hard with that plant to get consumers and “My family does 4-H like a lot of manufacturers to understand that families play baseball.” cultivated material is more valuable So said Allyson Brake, 18, a than the wild, because when we Wilson County 4-H’er who started grow it we have more control over her first livestock project after bethe quality and the potency of those ing given a lamb named “Peanut” plants, whereas if you just harvest for her fifth birthday. from scattered wild populations, Allyson “dove headfirst into there will be inconsistencies. citizenship” after winning her first “Wild plants growing in one lo4-H club office in middle school, cation might not get good nutrition, she said. She went on to become a while plants growing in another County Council officer at the age of location might not get very much 14, Southeast district president and light,” she adds. “With forest farmCounty Council president at 16, and

Dee Shore

for lumber, or they can choose to focus solely on understory crops and preserve the trees for their ecosystem benefits, Davis says.

Forest farming is distinct from – and, in most cases, preferable to – wild crafting, the harvest of woodland plants that occur naturally. With forest farming, growers can provide more control over the quality and, in the case of botanicals, the potency of the plants, Davis says.

plenty of partners, especially the North Carolina Natural Products Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving, cultivating, sustainably harvesting and producing N.C. grown medicinal plants. Other key players include Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, Advantage West, the Bent Creek Institute, the U.S. Forest Service, and companies such as Gaia Herbs.

In part because of these organizations’ impetus, interest in forest farming in Western North Carolina has risen since Davis expanded her program from commercial vegetable production to include herbs in the late 1980s.

“For so long, the woodland botanical industry in this area was all wild harvesters. You see photographs of old mountain men sitting next to a big pile of wild ginseng,” she says. “That’s the industry I came into when I started.

“But that industry is maturing.

Today, we have a cultivated herb industry that’s providing high quality, standardized products. It’s an industry that’s been hidden, but it’s becoming an upfront industry that’s very evident in Western North Carolina,” she adds. “I’m really curious to see what the next 10 years are going to bring.”

— Dee Shore

All in the family: 4-H mother and daughter have both been state presidents

20 perspectives

she served as state 4-H president last year as a college freshman.

“It has been the hardest job I’ve ever had that I think I could have the most fun at,” said Allyson, 18.

“It is a lot of work and a lot of time and a lot of miles to travel, but the people you meet and the connections you gain through this program are something you can’t gain doing anything else.”

She never considered not joining 4-H. In fact, her presidency seemed to be written in the stars.

“The skill set that 4-H provides these young people and the opportunities for public speaking and travel are exceptional,” she said. “A lot of kids don’t have an opportunity to get outside their comfort zone.

4-H makes it possible.

“The friendAllyson Brake (left) and Kristina Bass Brake peruse historic photos of fellow 4-H officers. ships are one of the most important things,” “I really want to make sure the she adds. “I have friends from 4-H future is secure for farmers and whose kids are now friends with farmland because the need for our my kids. It’s really neat.” farmers is only going to grow the Allyson agrees. “The connecbigger the world gets,” she said. “I tions, the friendships are the most also really want to be able to do important thing to me,” she said. something that would allow me to “Also, to be able to take what I’ve give back to this program.” learned and share it. I feel like beAlthough she officially stepped ing state officer was my way to give down as state 4-H president last back to the program that has given summer, Allyson said she’ll be inme so much. volved for life.

“4-H is such a great opportunity, “This isn’t goodbye,” she said and it opens so many doors,” Allywith a little laugh. “You can’t get son added. “You just have to choose rid of me that easy! It’s hard to bewhich door to walk through.” lieve it’s over. I wouldn’t trade this After college, Allyson said she past year for all the money in the plans to become an advocate for world.” — Suzanne Stanard agriculture.

Agroecology farm and program have grown and improved Just three years ago, the agroecology unit off Lake Wheeler Road didn’t have as much as a tool shed.

Water, when available, was brought in on a truck. In fact, the first summer graduate student Stephen Ratasky managed the unit, he spent most of his time driving the water truck back and forth to hand-water a half acre of student plots there.

Flash forward to 2012: The Agroecology Education Farm, part

of the Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory education unit, has its own toolshed and a new well that provides drip irrigation to plots that advanced agroecology students planted in the spring. The farm has access to electricity, there are new vermicomposting and composting bins, and it even has its own tractor.

Many improvements at the Agroecology Education Farm were winter 2013

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Suzanne Stanard

In Clover All Over: North Carolina’s First 4-H Century, author Jim Clark predicted that Allyson’s mother, Kristina (Bass) Brake, would produce the next 4-H president 25 years later. His guess was off by only one year.

Kristina, who served as state 4-H president from 1985 to 1986, comes from a long line of 4-H’ers.

“I got involved at age nine, and my father and grandfather were both 4-H’ers,” she said. “My grandfather was a member of the second Honor Club, and my father participated in local, district, state and national competitions. My sister also was a state officer and the first national winner in beef.

“We’re a 4-H family,” she said.

“Allyson is part of the same 4-H club that my granddaddy was in, and we’ve had four generations in the same Lucama community club.”

Today, Kristina is an active leader in the Lucama 4-H club, along with her husband, James, who has helped start a new and very popular 4-H shooting club.

As state 4-H president, Allyson traveled the state to participate in events, give speeches and “market the 4-H brand,” as she said.

A communications/pre-law major at Campbell University, Allyson juggled her 4-H presidency with her first year of college, a feat that she said was difficult at first. “Once I got myself into a routine, it wasn’t really that bad,” she said.

Kristina accompanied her on a few speaking engagements, but, she said, “Allyson really took the ball and ran with it. She’s gone so many places in the last year, and she’s done a really good job.”

She said the program has changed a lot since she was an officer, now giving the young leaders more responsibility and depending on them as spokespeople for 4-H. But, according to Kristina, the heart of the organization remains unchanged.

Natalie Hampton

Dr. Michelle Schroeder-Moreno addresses the Farm to Fork reception at the Agroecology Education Farm.

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perspectives

of behind the curve without a student farm.

Across the nation, there are a lot of them,” she said.

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences currently offers a minor and concentration in agroecology. SchroederThe October reception served up local and sustainably Moreno teaches produced food. two core agroecology courses pest management specialist in crop – two sections of an introductory science, talked with Schroedercourse in the fall and a smaller Moreno about establishing an advanced agroecology course in agroecology teaching unit. He was the spring for graduate and underinterested in further developing the graduate students. Popularity of agroecology program, which he the introductory class has grown, and other faculty at the Center for attracting students from many disEnvironmental Farming Systems ciplines, as well as other Triangle (CEFS) had initially envisioned. universities, among the 80 students CEFS, a partnership of N.C. enrolled in the fall. An online verState, N.C. A&T State University sion of the introductory course is and the N.C. Department of Agoffered in the spring to about 35 riculture and Consumer Services, students. conducts research, education and Schroeder-Moreno sees the outreach related to sustainable agAgroecology Education Farm as riculture. more than just N.C. State’s student It took time for the idea to take farm, but as a place where school hold. The land in question was adgroups and members of the comjacent to Yates Mill County Park, munity can come to learn about another advantage for easy access. sustainable and organic crop proAt the time, it was used to produce duction, as well as preparing and corn and alfalfa used by the Colpreserving food. lege’s dairy.

“It’s in a unique setting; it’s an A beneficial insect border was urban setting. And I think by comfirst established on the site in 2008 bining the university’s resources and has been used as a teaching and faculty expertise with the surresource. rounding community, you give An advisory committee, made students not only opportunities to up of sustainability faculty on camlearn about sustainable agriculpus, has helped create the vision ture in a hands-on way, but also for the agroecology farm. opportunities to learn leadership Most of the six-acre agroecology and communication skills through farm is still planted in winter and engagement with the community,” summer cover crops and used by she said.

The idea for developing an agro- agroecology classes for learning about soil analysis and sustainable ecology farm was born in 2007, agriculture practices. Soil samples when Dr. Mike Linker, integrated taken over time indicate that the

Natalie Hampton

the result of student efforts and support from a new Agroecology Education Farm Advisory Committee, as well as production efforts by Green Planet Catering, a local business focused on local and sustainably produced food.

In October, this student farm held a Farm to Fork reception to connect the various agroecology and sustainable agriculture education student efforts at N.C. State and to identify future collaborations in agroecology across campus. For the event, the agroecology farm partnered with Rave Catering, a division of N.C. State’s University Dining to provide food and funding for the event.

Much of the credit for the farm’s transformation goes to Dr. Michelle Schroeder-Moreno, associate professor of agroecology in the Crop Science Department. She has been the driving force behind the development of the farm, and she has an even bigger vision for the farm down the road.

“With all we’ve done at N.C. State with sustainable agriculture research, outreach and education, we’re kind

richest soil on the site is located on lowlands near the park property, the site where advanced agroecology students develop gardens in the spring.

In 2010, student Stephen Ratasky came to N.C. State to earn his master’s degree in crop science’s sustainability concentration. As an undergraduate at Clemson University, he had been involved with the student organic farm there, and he saw in N.C. State a place where he could continue that involvement.

He was excited about the opportunity to work with Schroeder-Moreno on developing N.C. State’s farm.

“I thought it was interesting and intriguing to take on this new site,” Ratasky said. “It was almost like having a blank slate.”

Ratasky spent the past two summers as farm manager at the agroecology farm, helping maintain gardens that students had planted in the spring. The first year, with limited equipment and no water on the site, he spent much of his time – up to five hours a day – handwatering the gardens to keep plants alive.

Last summer, things improved greatly at the farm, with the addition of a well and irrigation system.

Students from even a few years back would be surprised to find that the farm now has a tool shed, a tractor with implements and electricity on site.

Schroeder-Moreno has acquired these new resources slowly, with support from CALS, the Crop Science Department and colleague Paul Mueller, who helped her find affordable equipment.

Last summer, several other graduate students in addition to Ratasky worked at the farm. Their projects ranged from a vermicomposting bin, to educational signage to communications outreach, including social media and a student farm blog. Perhaps the biggest advancement was water for a drip irrigation system.

The irrigation system required spring students to rethink their gardens some somewhat from curves and mounds to rows that could be fed by drip lines. In addition to the student garden plots, Daniel Whitaker of Green Planet Catering has planted plots that provide produce for his catering operation. When students planned their gardens in the spring, they looked for inspiration from Green Planet’s menu.

Summer 2012 was a great production success, with lots of produce going to Green Planet Catering, and extra produce was donated to Raleigh’s Interfaith Food Natalie Hampton

Locally produced beer was featured at the six-acre agroecology farm’s fall event.

Shuttle. The irrigation system also freed Ratasky to focus on other projects, such as building picnic tables and compost bins tables for the farm.

But the story doesn’t end there.

For his master’s project, Ratasky is helping shape a vision for the student farm’s future. He conducted an in-depth study of 24 student farms on college campuses to help develop a plan for N.C. State’s farm.

Like Schroeder-Moreno, Ratasky wants the farm to become more

engaged with the community, offering workshops, tours and other educational opportunities. He believes that there is a captive audience in the Triangle, with so many new community gardens developing.

What is Ratasky’s personal wish list for the farm? “A fully functioning teaching pavilion equipped with a kitchen, where we could hold outdoor demonstrations and classes, with an area where you can wash, prepare, and store food,” he says.

“When I think about what I want to develop, I want to take it to a whole new level,” said SchroederMoreno. “I’d like to develop a new model for student farms that engage with the community, and hopefully provide a resource for the surrounding urban community.

The education has to be the focus.”

The demand for the agroecology courses suggests the time is right to expand the program from a minor or degree concentration to an agroecology major, and a vibrant student farm is a critical piece to meeting that goal, Schroeder-Moreno said.

“University Dining will also be a strong partner in making this happen, and we can think about how to incorporate this agroecology education in more visable efforts on campus such as sourcing produce from the farm to the cafeteria and bringing the compost produced from dining food waste back to the farm,” she said. “This creates food system education that comes full circle.

“The farm is a fundamental and critical component for developing an agroecology major program,” said Schroeder-Moreno. “If we’re going to the take education to the next level for agroecology, for the undergraduate or graduate level, we need a facility near campus to be able to explore hands-on education and research and develop a community for students, a place where they can share similar interests and get together.”

– Natalie Hampton

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Suzanne Stanard

Extension, teaching will play roles in research grant to combat salmonella

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rs. Hosni Hassan and Matt Koci, from N.C. State’s departments of microbiology and poultry science, respectively, are leading the charge on a new five-year, $2.5 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) to stamp out salmonella.

But this isn’t your ordinary research grant. Their approach – along with partners at UNC-Chapel Hill, the Kenan Fellows program and North Carolina 4-H – involves research, teaching and extension.

“The research is aimed at trying to develop new ways of preventing poultry from getting colonized by salmonella, so then the poultry products the consumer comes in contact with are less likely to be capable of causing foodborne illness,” said Koci, associate professor of poultry science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Through the Kenan Fellows program and 4-H, Hassan’s and Koci’s research eventually will be delivered to youth throughout the state and nation.

“The K-12 teachers will spend time in each of our labs learning a different area of science,” said Hassan, CALS professor of microbiology. “Then they will develop lessons that will be made available to schools statewide, in essence carrying research from the lab all the way to the consumer and future farmers.”

And, according to Koci, 4-H will work to adapt the curricula for their clubs throughout the state and also will ensure that it meets national 4-H standards so that it may be taught to young people all over the U.S. The seed for the project “started with a lunch” about five years ago, Hassan said.

In 2007, Hassan’s lab patented a gene mutation that attenuates sal-

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Hassan (left) and Koci are working to prevent foodborne illness. They hope to adapt their research into K-12 lessons and 4-H curricula to be made available throughout the state and nation.

monella. He teamed with Koci that same year to begin experiments on a potential salmonella vaccine. In 2011, they won a Chancellor’s Innovation Fund award for this work.

The awards were created by N.C. State Chancellor Randy Woodson to provide additional support to faculty, staff and students who develop technologies or ideas with commercial potential. Hassan and Koci also received a grant that year from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBC).

“This USDA project is an extension of the work we’ve been doing for the Chancellor’s Innovation Fund and the NCBC grant,” Koci said. “Our work up until now has largely focused on using the mutant strain that Hosni developed as a vaccine in chickens, and now we’re expanding our work to try to manipulate the normal bugs that live in the gut in a way that provides more resistance to salmonella. So we’ll try that in combination with the vaccine or by itself to find the

best way to drive salmonella numbers as low as we can get them.”

It comes down to good bugs and bad bugs, Hassan said. “You find some people who can eat the same dish and one gets sick and the other doesn’t get sick, so there must be something about the gut flora that causes this dichotomy. So we’re trying to define that flora in the chicken and see if we can do more to enhance this flora and find out if that will resist salmonella.

“We’re also looking at how the vaccine will interact with natural microflora,” Hassan said. “So we’re really looking at both the health of the chicken and of the consumer.”

The Kenan Fellows program will bring nine K-12 teachers from area schools to campus this summer to work alongside Hassan and Koci in their labs. The teachers then will develop curricula that they eventually pilot in their own classrooms. At the end of the program, their curricula will be published so that teachers throughout the state can use it.

At the same time, 4-H professionals will work with the Kenan Fellows to adapt the curricula for 4-H clubs statewide. Hassan and Koci estimate that the curricula – which likely will focus on topics like food safety, disease prevention and immunization – should land in classrooms within the next two to three years.

“There’s also a neat component in the grant through the computer engineering department to develop a computer game to be part of the 4-H and Kenan Fellows teaching tools,” Hassan said.

“Our goal is to educate the public about salmonella and how to avoid it,” Hassan said. “People need to be educated about food safety and proper food handling, but they also need to understand how salmonella works and how it can make them sick.

“We’re also working to develop a safe product, so that what’s applied to the chicken can be applied to other farm animals as well,” he said.

Salmonellosis (the disease caused by salmonella) is a largely prevent-

Word whiz: CALS student wins national medical terminology contest

Courtesy Erin Beasley

CALS animal science major and prevet student Erin Beasley displays the gold medal she won as national champion in the Health Occupations Students of America competition.

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ords like retinoblastoma, dysphonia and hepatologist may be more than a mouthful for most, but for College of Agriculture and Life Sciences sophomore Erin Beasley, knowing words like these landed her a trip to Orlando, Fla., where she became a national champion with Health Occupations Students of America.

HOSA is an organization for high school and college students interested in working in health care, and its annual medical terminology contest is designed to test students’ ability to identify, spell, define and

apply the prefixes, suffixes, roots and anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology and occupations related to the field. The event took place at HOSA’s annual conference in June 2012.

Beasley, an animal science student and aspiring veterinarian, says her interest in words and her passion for anatomy were key to her championship win.

“I’ve always liked the origin of words and the history of words. Being able to piece certain word parts together was really fascinating for me. I also love anatomy,” she says.

able disease that could be avoided if people were to practice better food safety, Koci said.

“We can do everything we can to minimize risks as much as possible, but food production happens on such a scale that even a small fraction of people will continue to get sick,” Koci said. “The only way we’re ever going to stamp it out completely is to focus on both the science and consumer education and attack it from both angles.”

— Suzanne Stanard

“Piecing all that together and being able to compete in it is really fun.”

Beasley earned her way to the national competition by coming in first place in the state-level medical terminology contest held as part of North Carolina’s HOSA leadership conference in Greensboro last spring.

Through HOSA, Beasley is involved in numerous health-related service projects. It is just one of the many activities she has been involved in as an N.C. State student. Last year, she was an intern for Reptile Rescue of the Carolinas, and she’s also an active member of the pre-vet club and a volunteer with Operation Catnip, a monthly spay-and-neuter clinic for feral cats.

Over spring break 2012, she traveled to Costa Rica to help with spaying and neutering of dogs and cats. And this year she’s serving as an intern with CALS’ VetPAC, or Veterinary Professions Advising Center.

As she looks ahead, Beasley says she’s eager to gain all the animal and veterinary experiences she can, including taking on HOSA’s veterinary medicine competition next year. Gaining such experiences is all part of fulfilling her dream, she says, of attending N.C. State’s doctoral program in veterinary medicine.

“I’ve always loved animals, and I’ve always loved science,” she says. “But over the years I’ve found winter 2013

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known to be hereditary, dysphonia is a voice disorder and a hepatologist is a physician specializing in treating patients with liver diseases.

— Dee Shore

Becky Kirkland

that the veterinary medicine career does really fit me. Of course I love animals, but it’s also fascinating to help animals with medical issues. I like learning about different body processes. And I like to solve puzzles and problems.”

And, speaking of puzzles: If those words in the first paragraph have you perplexed, Beasley can explain: A retinoblastoma is a malignant tumor of the eye that is

Beasley is an intern in the College’s VetPAC program.

Landscape design students capture ‘wild energies’

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he fall semester N.C. State of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ students in Prof. Will Hooker’s Horticultural Science Department. landscape design studio created a The goal of the class is for students colorful bamboo sculpture – with a to develop the design skills and hint of Saturday morning cartoon sensibility to pragmatically solve whimsy — that they installed on an spatial problems in ways that add urban farm in Matthews, just east “magic” to the of Charlotte. lives of users of The piece, “Wild Energies,” inthe spaces. The cludes figures of a blue-eyed deer, sculpture proat one end of an elevated turning ject is one of a bamboo bar, being chased by a series of design green-eyed wolf, while a benignly activities that beaming sun watches – and balancexpose students es the structure — at the other end. to the range of Below this action, a portly bamboo problems typifrog crouches on the ground, his cally encountongue thrusting to catch a hovertered in a smalling bee. The scenes humorously scale landscape suggest the dynamic tension of the design/build chase in nature. practice.

The students built the various Previous components of the sculpture in the studio sculpcourtyard of Kilgore Hall before taking it all to Matthews for final assembly.

Each semester, Hooker’s students design a bamboo sculpture as part of HS 400, Residential Landscape Students put the final touches on a Design Studio, bamboo frog and wolf (above) before a course in placing them with the deer on the the College larger structure (right).

tures have been installed by CALS students at the JC Raulston Arboretum, the N.C. State Fairgrounds, local elementary schools and numerous regional gardens and public areas. — Terri Leith

Photos courtesy of Will Hooker

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noteworthy

ALUMNI

2012-2013 CALS Distinguished Alumni, Outstanding Alumni honored he College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has announced Dr. Charles W. Stuber and Jessie Thomas “Tommy” Bunn as its 2012-2013 Distinguished Alumni.

The two were honored at the College’s annual Alumni Awards Reception Nov. 2. Dr. Richard Linton, College dean, and Josh Starling, executive director of the North Carolina FFA Foundation, presided at the reception held at the N.C. State University Club, where the College’s Outstanding Alumni, Outstanding Young Alumni and Outstanding Staff Member for 2012 were also announced.

Stuber and Bunn were recognized for their outstanding career achievements, which have brought honor to the College, and for their commitment to the land-grant principle of service to community, state and nation.

Stuber, who was raised on a farm in Nebraska, earned his bachelor’s degree in technical science in agriculture and his master’s in plant breeding and genetics at the University of Nebraska. He received a Ph.D. in genetics and experimental statistics at N.C. State University.

In 1962 Stuber was hired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) as a research geneticist, with a joint appointment as a professor of genetics at N.C. State.

He taught genetics at N.C. State until his retirement in 1998, and he has continued to serve on the

Marc Hall

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Bunn (left) and Stuber unveil the CALS Distinguished Alumni Awards display to which their names have been added.

faculty as an emeritus professor of genetics since then. In 2006, Stuber was asked to develop the Center for Plant Breeding and Applied Plant Genomics at N.C. State, and he became the center’s first director, a position he still holds. As the center’s director, he is actively involved in raising funds for graduate student fellowships and in recruiting and advising graduate students.

During his career, Stuber was active in a number of professional societies and received awards for his pioneering research accomplishments in the development of DNA marker-based selection technology that now is used in all major plantbreeding programs worldwide.

In 2010, he was named a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Outstanding Alumnus. In 2012, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Plant Breeders.

Stuber is a member of several honorary societies and has published more than 215 scientific papers and book chapters. His professional travels have taken him to much of Europe, Egypt, Israel, Brazil, New Zealand, Mexico, England and Canada.

Bunn, a native of Zebulon, is a 1966 graduate of N.C. State with a degree in agricultural business/crop science. He has served as president of the U.S. Tobacco Cooperative winter 2013

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Marc Hall

Dean Richard Linton (right) joins the honorees at the CALS Alumni Awards reception.

since 2008 and managed government affairs for the cooperative for two years prior to being appointed president.

Bunn’s career includes 21 years as executive vice-president of Leaf Tobacco Exporters Association and Tobacco Association of the United States. He served the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., for more than six years as deputy director and acting director of the Agricultural Marketing Service, Tobacco Division. He served nine years with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services as a tobacco marketing specialist under Commissioner Jim Graham.

Bunn has led and participated in numerous international trade missions to China, Southeast Asia, Europe and South America, representing the U.S. tobacco industry on trade issues and developing market access for U.S. agriculture.

Bunn, who resides in Raleigh, serves on the board of visitors at N.C. State University and is a charter member of the board of directors of Golden LEAF. In 1988, the North Carolina State Grange recognized Bunn as Man of the Year. And in 1995, he was honored as “Tobacco Great” by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

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Following the Distinguished Alumni Awards presentations, Starling announced the 2012 CALS Outstanding Alumni and Outstanding Young Alumni:

2012 CALS Outstanding Alumni (listed with their nominating departments)

Gerald K. Barlowe, Department of Agricultural and Extension Education Dr. Robert E. “Bob” Cook, Prestage Family Department of Poultry Science Dr. Godfrey Alexander Gayle, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering William A. “Bill” Hobbs, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics E. Allen James, Department of Biology Dr. Randy Jones, Department of Animal Science William M. “Billy” McLawhorn, Department of Crop Science Dr. Steven Shafer, Department of Plant Pathology Dr. Giles Shih, Department of Microbiology Roy L. Vick Jr., Department of Soil Science Jeremy Smearman, Department of Horticultural Science Mary Ellen Sanders, Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences

Wendell H. “Dell” Murphy Jr., Agricultural Institute

Outstanding Young Alumni Kurt H. Bland, Department of Horticultural Science Kathryn P. “Katie” Davis, Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry

Said Linton, “The alumni gathered here tonight represent the fulfillment of the promise of our land-grant mission in academics, research and extension. Through their professional achievements and service to N.C. State and their communities, the alumni we are honoring today exemplify what makes N.C. State and the College a leader among peers. These alumni serve as extraordinary role models for our students, who are our future alumni and leaders.”

Finally, a new award was given to recognize the contributions made by those who dedicate their careers to the College. Honored as Outstanding Staff Member was Gary D. Cartwright, director of the Dairy Enterprise System in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences. – Terri Leith

Courtesy Keith Davis

Ghostly blooms: Alum honored for orchid-breeding efforts

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eith Davis was teaching horticulture in 1980 at a Corpus Christi, Texas, high school, when a chance Keith Davis is helping to save the ghost orchid (shown encounter at a blooming above) from extinction. local estate sale set him on a Becky Kirkland course of becomthe CALS Horticultural Science ing a life-long orchid breeder.

Department. The orchid’s ghostly Among the items at the estate sale blooms had ceased for the season, were a variety of orchids priced at but the plant had produced a val$1 each.

“I saw these orchids, and I didn’t ued seed pod that would soon be en route to a colleague eager to try really know much about them,” his hand at cultivating the plant. said Davis, a 1979 College of AgriDavis was invited by Dr. Dennis culture and Life Sciences graduate Werner, Raulston Distinguished in forestry and horticultural sciProfessor of horticulture, who ence. With a new greenhouse to fill taught Davis as an undergraduate at his high school, he purchased a student during Werner’s first year dozen orchids growing on a variety at N.C. State. of strange materials.

“Keith has solved the riddle of Davis repotted his new plants in growing this unique and special plant dark, rich soil. “I was sure that any plant in such luxurious soil would ex- in domestication. His accomplishment is a reflection of his passion for plode in new growth and shower me orchids and horticulture, his creativwith blooms,” Davis wrote in Orchids ity, inquisitiveness and excellent obmagazine. “In just a few short weeks, servational skills,” said Werner. “His all but one of the 12 plants had gone work will have far-reaching impacts to compost heaven.” in developing future strategies to preThe experience piqued Davis’ vent extinction of this beautiful and interest in orchids, and he became remarkable species.” involved with the local orchid sociDavis first heard of the ghost ety. Over the years, his knowledge orchid, an almost legendary plant, and skill at breeding orchids grew. while he was just beginning to He was recently honored by the study orchids. He had never seen American Orchid Society for his as much as a photo of the orchid’s efforts to breed the rare and endanbloom – only a painting. gered ghost orchid, native to south “It’s so gorgeous, especially Florida. when you have more than one In October, Davis brought bloom, and it blooms all summer,” samples of the ghost orchid to N.C. Davis said.

State University for a seminar in

Several years later, while visiting greenhouses at UNC-Charlotte, Davis saw an orchid that looked very similar to the one in the painting.

The greenhouse curator later told him that the horticulture staff had tried many times to cultivate the orchid, but only the one specimen had survived long enough to bloom one time, then died the next year.

Davis later described the bloom as, “a cross between an albino frog and a ghost with bowed legs, two sets of wings, a green head with two red eyes and a long arching tail. What in the world was Nature thinking when this thing was designed?”

Thus began Davis’ quest to cultivate the ghost orchid. At the time, he had moved to Reidsville to be closer to his wife’s family and was working as the horticulture director for Chinqua-Penn Plantation, the opulent home of Jeff and Betsy Penn. The Penns, who collected artifacts, art and horticultural specimens from around the world, donated their home, collection and gardens to the UNC system to be used for education, agricultural research and as a museum.

Chinqua-Penn was initially managed by UNC-Greensboro in 1965, and N.C. State University assumed the role of caretaker in 1986. When Davis worked there, the director of Chinqua-Penn Plantation also had an extensive orchid collection, and the combined orchid collections were used to decorate throughout the home.

Davis studied the ghost orchid to learn how it grows in nature. In the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park in south Florida, the orchid grows on trees. “I had to get it to grow on something that wouldn’t rot,” Davis said. “In nature, this leafless orchid grows on a living plant such as on the trunk or limbs of trees.”

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While splitting firewood for his home, Davis noticed that the bark of mockernut hickory (Carya tomentosa) came off a log nearly intact, even after a year of aging. The mockernut hickory bark looked right for growing orchids, but Davis wondered how long it would last.

After experimenting and failing with over a dozen different materials to try and grow the ghost orchid on, he planted a baby, seed-raised ghost orchid on the mockernut hickory bark. The orchid took root and began to grow.

Davis believes the bark holds some type of preservative properties – the first orchid he successfully grew nearly 20 years ago is still holding fast to the original piece of bark. Some species of trees have bark containing chemicals that can actually kill plants that try to grow on it. However, the mockernut bark appears to have no destructive properties, only long-term preservative qualities that keep it from rotting.

The next challenge was getting

the orchid to bloom. When one of Davis’ ghost orchids reached blooming size without producing blooms, Davis again turned to nature to determine what might promote blooms. A fellow orchid grower and native south Floridian told Davis that in nature the ghost orchids live in an area that is typically dry in winter. Orchid enthusiasts had observed that wet winters produced fewer ghost orchid blooms.

So Davis moved his ghost orchid to a drier area of the greenhouse and watered it sparingly through the winter. By the end of February 2007, he was rewarded with the orchid’s first ghostly blooms.

In May 2007, Davis entered his prized ghost orchid in the American Orchid Society judging in Greensboro, packing the fragile plant for its 40-mile journey to the show. To his surprise, the AOS presented him with the highest possible award for flower quality — “like winning the Kentucky Derby of orchids,” Davis said.

Davis’ quest to grow the ghost orchid came out of his desire to preserve this endangered plant.

There are only a few dozen plants growing in the wild, and many can only be seen on risky treks through waist-deep waters, home to poisonous snakes and alligators. The orchid was also known to grow in Cuba many years ago, but limited access to Cuba has left orchid enthusiasts wondering.

“I was trying to preserve it,” Davis said. “I wanted to learn how to keep it alive so orchid growers could raise it and grow it.” Being able to artificially reproduce endangered species greatly reduces the illegal collection of wild plants from nature.

Today, Davis raises orchids at his home near Reidsville, conducting sales over the Internet. The ghost orchid is mainly a hobby for him now. After 20 years’ effort, he feels satisfaction in finding a way to keep this ghostly orchid alive for others to enjoy. — Natalie Hampton

Can-do spirit lands Yard-Nique founder on TBJ ‘40 Under 40’ list

Becky Kirkland

B

rian DuMont describes the start of his company as the “perfect storm.”

As a senior pursuing a degree in horticultural science at N.C. State in 1997, DuMont was assigned a class project about business ownership. He came up with a plan for a landscaping company and received one of his best grades ever.

Later that spring, Yard-Nique became official.

DuMont deferred graduation for a year, working 14-hour days with a crew of one or two people and a single truck. Today, Yard-Nique is a full-service landscaping company with more than 250 employees and locations in Raleigh, Creedmoor, Jacksonville, Wilmington, Fayetteville

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Brian DuMont poses proudly with his Yard-Nique staff.

and Greensboro, as well as in Richmond, Va. The company provides comprehensive landscaping services, from design/build to maintenance.

DuMont calls it a “one-stop shop.”

And for his accomplishments as a young entrepreneur, DuMont

was named to the 2012 class of the Triangle Business Journal’s esteemed “40 Under 40” list.

“Every dollar I made, I put back into the business,” DuMont says.

“Early on, through word of mouth, our business began to snowball, and the company would double in

Becky Kirkland

size every year. The economy also was good at the time, and the market was booming.”

Despite the economic downturn of the last few years, DuMont and his team have managed to expand the company’s market share into Fayetteville, Jacksonville, Wilmington, Greensboro, and across state lines into Virginia. He speaks animatedly about continuing to grow the business into areas like Charlotte, while also maintaining growth in existing markets.

“Our diversity of services enables us to succeed,” DuMont says.

“When one sector is down, the others tend to do well.

“And our people are the best,” he says. “I don’t micro-manage. To grow a company, you have to let go, and I let our folks do what they do best. We wouldn’t be where we are today without such an incredible staff.”

DuMont says he also receives great support from his family. In fact, his father, Bill DuMont, came on board in 2003 to help out with the company’s bookkeeping. Today he serves as CFO. He also points to his experience as a student in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Horticultural Science as

one of the keys to his success.

“My professors, especially Stu Warren and Bryce Lane, are a huge inspiration to me,” DuMont says.

“They were such a big help when I was trying to start this Brian DuMont (right), his son Dylan, and his father (and company CFO), Bill. company, and they’ve been there for me every step of the way.” beautification project, and most The company is committed to recently, the Yard-Nique team won hiring graduates of the College’s the “Bike MS Evolution Award” for Horticultural Science Department, raising more than $20,000 for mulDuMont says. A number of his curtiple sclerosis research. rent employees are CALS graduDuMont and his wife Aaren (a ates, some of whom were interns 2005 graduate of the N.C. State who stayed on with the company.

College of Veterinary Medicine) To say DuMont is driven is an welcomed their first child, Dylan, understatement. last year, which presented DuMont “I’m 37 now,” he says. “I want to with what he describes as his greatcontinue to grow this company as est challenge yet: achieving ballong as I’m proud to be here. My ance. favorite part of all this is the chalWhether in parenthood or busilenge.” ness, DuMont says he strives to do He also takes great pleasure his best every single day. in giving back to his community.

“When people say, ‘You can’t do Yard-Nique has participated in this,’” DuMont says, “I say, ‘Let’s educational programs with school do it.’” — Suzanne Stanard children, donated labor for a school

Persistence pays for alumnus who leads CALS biotech spinoff

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hen College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumnus Dr. Giles Shih talks about the success of his company, BioResource International (BRI), he sometimes mentions the Louis Pasteur quote “chance favors the prepared mind.”

It was a prepared mind that led Shih’s father, N.C. State University poultry scientist Dr. Jason Shih, to understand that something he observed in a chicken house could have important implications for poultry nutrition.

And it has been a prepared – and persistent – mind that has allowed Giles Shih to lead the com-

pany commercializing his father’s discoveries through a tough startup phase into a period of growth and expansion both here in North Carolina and abroad.

Jason and Giles Shih founded BRI in 1999 to develop and sell enzymes to enhance animal and human health. The company got its start after the elder Shih noticed that feathers found in chicken manure disappeared over time. He and a graduate student tracked down the enzyme responsible for breaking down keratin, the tough protein in the feathers, and BRI now produces supplements that

use the enzyme to allow poultry to more easily digest proteins and absorb nutrients in animal feed.

Today, BRI has 18 employees, an office in Research Triangle Park and a manufacturing building in Apex. What’s more, its products are sold in some 25 countries worldwide. The company is also looking at other natural products that could help increase agricultural productivity and sustainability.

Because of its own growth, the company is gaining notice in North Carolina and beyond. In October, BRI made it onto the Inc. 500 list as one of the fastest-growing winter 2013

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Becky Kirkland

well prepared.

A microbiologist by training, Shih earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Cornell University in 1989, then came to N.C. State University in 1991 to study under Dr. Eric Miller, now the Microbiology Department head.

At the time, he was trying to figure out if he wanted to become a researcher or pursue a medical degree. He decided to go for a Ph.D. in Dr. Giles Shih and his father, Jason, founded BRI in 1999. microbiology Today its products are sold in 25 countries. and molecular genetics at private companies in the United Emory University in Atlanta.

States, and in November the TrianWhile at Emory, Shih did congle Business Journal honored BRI as sulting work that led him to meet a Fast 50 company, an award that’s “a lot of passionate and enthusiastic based on a company’s revenue scientists who were trying to start up growth and profits over three years. their own companies around someEarlier in the year, the U.S. Pan thing they had discovered in the Asian American Chamber of Comlab,” he said. “So it got me thinking, merce named BRI a “Fast 50 Asian wow, maybe there are some other American Business” based on revopportunities outside of the lab after enue growth over the past three I finish my graduate research.” years, and the Greater Raleigh He and his father started talking Chamber of Commerce gave the about building a company around company its second consecutive the six patents that Jason Shih had Pinnacle Business Award for steady been granted while he was a facgrowth and profitability. ulty member at N.C. State, and the Meanwhile, Giles Shih received two founded BRI in 1999. Giles a CALS Outstanding Alumni became the company’s president Award in November. He also was and chief executive officer, and to named to the board of directors of prepare himself for the challenges the CED, or Council on Entrepreof being an entrepreneur, he soon neurial Development, based in Reenrolled in the master’s of business search Triangle Park. And he serves administration program at Duke on the state Biotechnology Center’s University.

Agricultural Biotechnology AdviThose early years of the comsory Council. pany were hard, he says. “We ran Shih comes to those positions the company on a shoestring; we 32 perspectives

just bootstrapped our way through … until things started to go in our favor.”

It was around 2008 that the Shihs got what Giles calls “our lucky break.”

“Oil prices hit their high. And as a result, corn and soybean prices also spiked up, and so all of a sudden people were looking for ways to save on their costs on feed, because feed ingredients are one of the major costs for poultry producers and pork producers,” he explains. “So we were at the right place at the right time with this enzyme.”

That year, BRI signed a distribution agreement with Novus International, a global animal nutrition company based in St. Louis. “They saw the opportunity to work with us to be a global distributor for our product,” Shih says. “We were very well placed at that time to take advantage of that opportunity.”

In the past four years, Shih adds, the company has “grown tremendously” because of increased demand for poultry in countries such as Brazil, India and China. And as the world population continues to climb and demand more food, there are opportunities for BRI to continue to grow.

Shih attributes some of BRI’s growth and its prospects for the future to its relationship with N.C. State and its Research Triangle location.

“What we have achieved is not due to just me and my father but also to the environment in which we’ve grown,” he says. “We have been successful because of the support we’ve gotten from N.C. State, from the Poultry Science Department on through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and also, in the early days, the [technology] incubator on Centennial Campus.”

As Shih looks to the future, he believes BRI will be a “much bigger, diversified company with lots to offer animal production, animal nutrition, animal health as well as other food-related areas, such as functional foods.” — Dee Shore

noteworthy

GIVING

Scholarship endowment honors 4-H’s Thearon and Vanette McKinney s Dr. Thearon McKinney retired from N.C. State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, a new scholarship endowment was created by his friends and family to honor McKinney and his wife, Vanette. The Thearon and Vanette McKinney American Youth Foundation Leadership Conference Scholarship Endowment was announced Sept.

7 at a retirement celebration for McKinney at the university’s JC Raulston Arboretum. The endowment is being created in the N.C. Agricultural Foundation Inc. in the College.

The new scholarship celebrates McKinney’s 34 years of service.

He retired as professor and associate state 4-H program leader from CALS and the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. During this time he has overseen the NCCES initiative for developing responsible youth and led the Youth Program Development and Delivery Team.

Vanette McKinney has also been active over the years as a volunteer for N.C. 4-H events and the American Youth Foundation.

The scholarship will provide opportunities for N.C. 4-H members to attend the American Youth Foundation Leadership Conference. The McKinneys

Courtesy Craven Hudson

A

The contributions to 4-H of Vanette and Thearon McKinney were celebrated Sept. 7 at the JC Raulston Arboretum.

have been affiliated with the AYF since their own college days.

The 4-H program is the youth education program of North

Carolina Cooperative Extension, based at N.C. State and N.C. A&T State universities. – Terri Leith

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Becky Kirkland

New CES endowments/funds announced at fall meeting director of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Foundation.

Through the Campaign for Counties, led

by Rowland and her team, Extension has established at least one fund in all 100 of the state’s counCALS Dean Rich Linton (left) joins Wanda Denning, Reba ties. To date, Green-Holley, Travis Burke, Dr. Joe Zublena and Marshall 357 different Stewart at the fall CES foundations meeting. funds provide opportunities he foundations that support for more than 890 educational proNorth Carolina Cooperative grams, scholarships and initiatives.

Extension celebrated a whopping The new endowments and funds 23 new endowments and enhanceare ment funds at their annual fall North Carolina Cooperative Extenmeeting. sion Foundation: Dr. Joe Zublena, associate dean • Durham County Extension and Extension director, presided Master Gardeners Enhancement over the September gathering of the Fund North Carolina Cooperative Exten• Durham County Kids Voting Ension Foundation, the 4-H Develophancement Fund ment Fund, the Family and Consumer Sciences Foundation and the • Durham County Project Build North Carolina Extension and ComEnhancement Fund munity Association Foundation.

• Gates County Cooperative ExtenIn his remarks at the luncheon, sion Service Enhancement Fund Zublena told the audience, “It is • Joe and Lisé Zublena Cooperabecause of your vision and leadertive Extension Service Awards ship that Extension has the resourcEndowment es to carry out so many programs • Rowland Family Cooperative Exthat improve the quality of life of tension Internship Endowment people throughout this state.”

Zublena also welcomed new • Sampson County Cooperative College of Agriculture and Life SciExtension Service Learning ences Dean Richard Linton, who, Complex Enhancement Fund at the time, had been on board for North Carolina Family and Conjust 12 days. Linton said during brief sumer Sciences Foundation: remarks at the luncheon, “I get Extension. I’m one of you. And I look • Carolyn J. Lackey Foods and forward to working with each of you Nutrition Endowment for Agent as we move Extension forward.”

Professional Development The foundations also said good• Durham County Family and bye to Sharon Rowland, who reConsumer Sciences Enhancetired at the end of November after ment Fund many years of service as executive

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• Durham County Welcome Baby Enhancement Fund • Gates County FCS Enhancement Fund • Rockingham County Cooperative Extension Volunteers Endowment for Family and Consumer Sciences Programs • Rockingham Cooperative Extension Volunteers Enhancement Fund for Family and Consumer Sciences Programs North Carolina Extension and Community Association Foundation: • Kathleen Scott Family Extension and Community Association/ Family and Consumer Sciences Endowment for Wilson County • Macon County Extension and Community Association Enhancement Fund • Sarah Nixon Extension and Community Association Endowment for Lincoln County North Carolina 4-H Foundation: • Dave and Gina Goff 4-H Presentation Endowment for Cabarrus County • Durham County 4-H Enhancement Fund • Eloise Cofer 4-H Scholarship Endowment for Family and Consumer Sciences • George and Linda McAuley 4-H Dairy Foods Presentation Endowment • Jones County 4-H Program Enhancement Fund • Sampson County 4-H Program Enhancement Fund • Thearon and Vanette McKinney American Youth Foundation Leadership Conference Scholarship Endowment • Warren County Buck Springs 4-H Camp Endowment.

— Suzanne Stanard

Distinguished service honored at joint foundations meeting

Kathy Kennel

he executive director of one of the most successful and active statewide local government associations in the nation was honored Nov. 13 during the fall joint meeting of the North Carolina Agriculture, Dairy and Tobacco foundations at N.C. State University. David Thompson, executive director and CEO of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, received the Distinguished Service Award presented by the North Carolina Agricultural Foundation Inc. This year’s event also included a special presentation to Sharon Rowland, retiring executive director of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service Foundation in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Dr. Joe Zublena, CALS associate dean and director of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, presided during the luncheon awards event at the University Club. Also participating were featured speaker Steve Troxler, commissioner of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; Jim Smith, chairman of the N.C. Agricultural Foundation, who presented the award to Thompson; and Dr. Bill Collins, director of the CALS Agricultural Leadership Program, who

Zublena made a special presentation to Extension’s Sharon Rowland.

Kathy Kennel

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Shown with award-winner David Thompson (center) are Dr. Joe Zublena (left) and Jim Smith of the North Carolina Agricultural Foundation.

delivered the invocation.

Thompson received his 1979 bachelor’s degree and 1981 master’s degree from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at N.C. State.

He was recognized for “providing truly outstanding support of the College and university,” said Zublena. “The NCACC serves as the counties’ advocate before the executive, legislative and judicial branches of state government, and David’s leadership of the NCACC has been outstanding. He’s been particularly supportive of Cooperative Extension, including Extension leaders as part the environmental and agricultural steering committees.

“As a result of this relationship, one of the NCACC Agricultural Steering Committee legislative goals is to support legislation to increase agricultural research and extension services and maintain existing research stations at current levels.”

Smith then presented Thompson the Distinguished Service Award “for outstanding advocacy efforts promoting the partnership between

the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University and all of the citizens of North Carolina.”

Zublena announced that Jimmy Gentry, president of the N.C. State Grange, had also been selected to receive the Distinguished Service Award but was unable to attend the awards event and so would be honored at the group’s spring board meeting.

In the special presentation to Rowland, Zublena noted that she “is our first director of the Extension Foundation. She has a personal passion for Extension and for making a difference. She is a giving person who has enriched the lives of citizens of the state.”

In his remarks, the recently re-elected Troxler thanked “the citizens of the state for having the confidence in me to re-elect me” and then focused on what’s ahead.

“The future is bright. I see so much opportunity in agriculture in this state,” he said. “We’re dedicated in North Carolina to agriculwinter 2013

35

tural research. When I hear what worldwide demand for food will be in the next 20, 30, 50 years, I know it’s incumbent on us to provide it efficiently and safely.”

Citing the upcoming implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, Troxler said, “We’ve got a lot to do at the state level

and national level,” adding that it’s fortuitous that CALS Dean Rich Linton, a food scientist and food safety specialist, “should come in at this time.”

In closing, Zublena reminded the group that the university is “celebrating our 125th anniversary, as well as the 150th anniversary of the

Morrill Act that created land-grant institutions such as N.C. State. As a national and international leader in research, teaching and extension, the College looks forward to continuing to work with you, our stakeholders, to address statewide, national and global challenges.”

— Terri Leith

Wayne and Judy Skaggs create endowment for water resources and hydrology research r. R. Wayne Skaggs, a National Academy of Engineering member and retiring William Neal Reynolds Professor and Distinguished University Professor of biological and agricultural engineering, with his wife, Judy, has created an endowment to support the continued research in his field of water, soil and plant systems management.

The Wayne and Judy Skaggs Endowment for Water Resources and the Hydrology of Poorly Drained Lands was created Nov. 9 at N.C. State University’s McKimmon Center. The endowment was signed as part of festivities in commemoration of Skaggs’ career.

Skaggs entered phased retirement in July, after more than 42 years on the BAE faculty in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

During his career, he has made contributions to the advancement of agricultural and biological engineering as a teacher, mentor, researcher and national leader. He is recognized globally as the expert in drainage and subsurface water management.

Skaggs’ work includes the 1978 development of the water management model, DRAINMOD, which effectively combines fundamental methods derived over several decades by soil physicists and engineers to create a tool that quantitatively relates drainage design parameters to the actual objective of the water management system.

This model has bridged the gap that existed between theory and 36 perspectives

Courtesy Chris Wessel

D

Wayne and Judy Skaggs sign the memorandum of understanding for the new endowment, along Dr. Robert O. Evans (left), head of the CALS Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department.

practice and is now used globally by consulting engineers, researchers and government agencies to predict the performance of drainage and related water management systems.

A native of eastern Kentucky, where he was raised on a farm, Skaggs earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Kentucky and his Ph.D. from Purdue University. In 1970 he joined the faculty at N.C. State, where he was named William Neal Reynolds Professor in 1984. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1991 and named Distinguished University Professor that same year. In 1994, N.C. State presented Skaggs its

highest faculty recognition, the Alexander Quarles Holladay Award.

And in 1997, he received the O. Max Gardner Award, the UNC system’s highest award.

The creation of the Wayne and Judy Skaggs Endowment was made possible through the generosity of the couple and the support of colleagues and industry partners.

It will enable CALS to support accomplished faculty members who will contribute to the department’s overall teaching, research and extension mission. Research in drainage water management and the hydrology of poorly drained, shallow water table soils will continue to receive priority and emphasis through the endowment.

2012

Celebrates the TRADITION

A pre-game pep rally featuring the Wolfpack mascots and band. An abundance of great food.

Fun and fellowship with CALS alumni, friends

biggest N.C. State University tailgate event, hosted

and faculty. Generous scoops of Howling Cow

by the CALS Alumni and Friends Society and the N.C.

ice cream. And an array of College exhibits with

Agricultural Foundation Inc.

everything from face-painting to reptile encounters.

It was all there Sept. 15 as the Wolfpack faithful filled Dorton Arena on the N.C. State Fairgrounds to “Celebrate the Tradition� at the 21st annual College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Tailgate event.

Hundreds of CALS alumni and friends gathered for what has become traditionally the best and

The tailgate also featured a silent auction, with proceeds benefitting the CALS Alumni and Friends scholarship endowment.

New CALS Dean Richard Linton was on hand to meet and greet tailgaters as they enjoyed the many event attractions before crossing the road from the fairgrounds to nearby Carter-Finley Stadium, where the N.C. State football team took on South Alabama and gave the fans something else to celebrate: a 31-7 victory.

perspectives

NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID RALEIGH, NC PERMIT #2353

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Campus Box 7603 North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-7603

Marc Hall

Special people, special gift

A $10 million gift from the Prestage family creates a professorship, funds teaching, research and Extension programs — and renames the CALS Poultry Science Department. (Story, page 2)