News Stories - Page 30

Randy Nuckolls, who joined 4-H as a child in Whitfield County more than 60 years ago, was honored with the 2023 Georgia 4-H Lifetime Achievement Award at the 4-H Gala in August. In the decades since, Nuckolls became deeply involved in Georgia 4-H, earning the title of Master 4-H’er and serving as a summer camp counselor at Rock Eagle 4-H Center before continuing to support Georgia 4-H throughout his career.

In honor of International Podcast Day on Sept. 30, we are highlighting a few shows out of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and UGA Cooperative Extension. You will find Cultivating Curiosity, All About the Pod and Two Agents & the FACS wherever you get your podcasts.

The University of Georgia has named 10 faculty and academic leaders to the university’s 2023-2024 class of Women’s Leadership Fellows. UGA established this program in 2015 as part of its Women’s Leadership Initiative to provide a select group of current faculty and administrators with an opportunity to develop leadership skills while gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities confronting higher education.

Increasing populations and changing climate conditions will require both innovative and ancient growing methods to feed the world. Regenerative agriculture, a movement both burgeoning and broad, is underpinned by the public’s growing awareness of how land stewardship and agricultural production contribute to the fate of our planet.

A new workshop brewed up by University of Georgia Cooperative Extension food science and technology process specialist Kaitlyn Casulli opened the tap on insider knowledge for craft brewers seeking to start a business. Casulli, an assistant professor in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Department of Food Science and Technology, is a craft beer aficionado with a mind for business.

At 8 years old, Danielle Essandoh unearthed a fascination with agriculture and never looked back. Her grandfather, a peanut farmer, welcomed her help around the family farm, and Essandoh embraced farm life with enthusiasm. Today, as a doctoral student in the Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics at the University of Georgia, Essandoh remains driven by her desire to help people sustain themselves.

Mel Garber remembers the phone call clearly. “How do we turn off the fireplace again?” His wife, Barbara Bankston, was on the other end of the line. She’d turned that fireplace on and off a thousand times. It’s a gas fireplace, so all you have to do is turn the knob, Mel told her. Maybe it was a one-time slip of the mind, he thought. They were getting older.

“I had no idea that any of this was out there.” This is the refrain that Bodie Pennisi and Kris Braman hear over and over when students at the University of Georgia enroll in the online course they developed to enlighten students to the wide world of biodiversity, pollinators and their role in protecting both. Co-taught by Pennisi, a professor in the Department of Horticulture, and Braman, head of the Department of Entomology, the official title of the course is “Discover the Wonderful World of Plants and Pollinators and Your Place in It.”

Members of the Southern Region Program Leadership Network, Association of Extension Administrators and the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors, including those from the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, convened in Orlando, Florida, for the annual conference. This year, Laura Perry Johnson received the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors’ Award for Excellence in Leadership, a career-long service award for those who lead Extension programs across the Southeast.

In the fall of 2022, Annette Kleiser was looking for a new professional home. Her company, Dalan Animal Health, was developing the world’s first honeybee vaccine and needed a top research university that offered excellent veterinary and agriculture schools, honey bee research and an established animal health ecosystem. The University of Georgia was just what the doctor ordered.