International Programs dean named
Contact: Dr. John Sabella, 919.515.2665 or john_sabella@ncsu.edu
Dr. John Sabella, adjunct professor in the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education, has been named Interim Assistant Dean for International Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Sabella brings to CALS international programs more than 25 years of international teaching and research experience in Latin America, Africa and Europe. He has served since 2000 as an adjunct professor in the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education. In this capacity, he has worked with the Shelton Leadership Center to develop and coordinate extension and educational initiatives for the Program for Sustainable Agriculture in Honduras.
Sabella also designed and coordinated the Hurricane Mitch Recovery Project, an N.C. State and U.S. Department of Agriculture effort that provided materials to improve sanitation in dairy and cheese processing plants in Honduras and Nicaragua. He also was involved with the CONCADE initiative in Bolivia and served as an extension trainer for USDA/Cochran fellows from Armenia, Central Asia and South Africa. CONCADE (Counter-narcotics Consolidation of Alternative Development Efforts) was an alternative crop development project.
In addition to his work at N.C. State, Sabella served from 2007 until 2010 as visiting professor of agroecology at the Universidad Nacional de Agricultura in Catacamas, Honduras. In addition to teaching courses in ecological farming systems, extension methodology and participatory development, Sabella coordinated the development and research agenda for a sustainable development research and demonstration farm.
From 2002 until 2006, Sabella served as associate director of the North Carolina Southern Coastal Agromedicine Institute at East Carolina University. The Agromedicine Institute is a collaboration of East Carolina, N.C. State and N.C. A&T State universities.
Sabella also co-founded BIO Uruguay, Uruguay’s first institute dedicated to organic farming research, demonstration and education. In 2006, BIO Uruguay opened an office in Stokes, N.C. Sabella now serves as Director for International Relations for BIO Uruguay.
Sabella is also founder and director of Sabella & Associates, a consulting firm that provides technical and educational support for sustainable programs worldwide. Many of the international projects in which Sabella has been involved have also involved N.C. State faculty, students and Cooperative Extension personnel.
Sabella served in the 1990s as training and education director for the Rodale Research Institute and in the late 1980s and early 1990s as international education program coordinator for Exploris Museum in Raleigh.
Sabella succeeds Dr. Paul Mueller, who retired, as Assistant Dean for International Programs.
Written by: Dave Caldwell, 919.513.3127 or dave_caldwell@ncsu.edu
