College of Ag Executive Council Receives Prestigious USDA Partnership Award

Members of the College of Agriculture Executive Council are Front row (from left): Dr. Jan Emerson, Dr. Gearldean Johnson, Ms. Rhonda Moore
Back row (from left): Dr. Surendra Singh, Dr. Mohammad Karim, Dr. Carter Catlin, Dr. Chandra Reddy, Mr. William Hayslett, Dr. Latif Lighari
Members of the CAHNS EC not pictured: Mr. Sam Comer, Dr. Nick Gawel, Dr. Terrance Johnson, Dr. Roger Sauve. (courtesy photo)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – The College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Sciences has received the prestigious National Institute of Food and Agriculture Partnership Award for Effective and Efficient Use of Resources.

The award, directed at the CAHNS Executive Council, recognized the group for its “exemplary work and outstanding contribution” in support of the mission of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and for its positive impact on agriculture.

“NIFA recognizes that there are many outstanding contributions that our partners in the land-grant universities and other cooperating institutions and organizations achieve,” said Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, director of NIFA. “[We] want to recognize them through this awards program.”

The award will be presented in Washington, D.C., Nov. 10 at the annual meeting of the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities.

“We are quite ecstatic about this recognition as it validates our restructuring effort and recognizes our growth and leadership success,” said Dr. Chandra Reddy, dean of CAHNS,” under whose leadership the Executive Council worked to identify and execute strategies to boost enrollment and graduation rates, enhance outreach activities and improve research efforts.

The Council, which comprises associate deans, department heads, and research center directors, among others, was established in 2008 by Dr. Reddy to serve as a policy-making and program-coordinating arm of the college.

Under the Council’ guidance, the College has doubled its student enrollment in agricultural and family and consumer sciences, tripled its research portfolio in five years, and expanded its outreach efforts to 46 counties from 12 counties in 2008, while graduate enrollment in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences has grown to more than 100 students from 11 students in the same year.

NIFA, one of the four research, education and economics agencies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, also recognized the CAHNS Executive Council’s help in governing and integrating the academics, research and outreach of the College, as well as helping the College secure funds to improve its physical facilities, including a 25,000-square-foot agricultural biotechnology building, a new open-roof greenhouse range, a state-of-the-art landscape studio, and a 4,800-square-foot. agriculture teaching/research facility.

“The NIFA partnership award provides positive feedback for the hard work of the Executive Committee,” added Dr. Reddy, who was recently recognized as one of the top professors at Historically Black Colleges, by Affordable Colleges Online.