AHS Welcomes, Awards, Recognitions, and Farewells

We are so thankful for our AHS family! Today we would like to express proper gratitude by acknowledging the many achievements made by our phenomenally hardworking faculty and staff. We would also like to send proper goodbyes to our AHS colleagues, whose time has come to a close. We wish them all the best and can’t wait to see what they accomplish next. 

Welcomes

• We welcomed Sudha Sankar to the department as an assistant professor and extension specialist on January 2.

• Malakai Erskine joined the department on January 9 as part of the Operation Homefront program.

• Katie Sanders joined the department as an assistant professor and extension specialist of food systems communication on March 15.

• Alston Blondin was welcomed into the department on April 3 as part of the Operation Homefront program.

Awards and Recognitions

• Joseph Donaldson was awarded the Distinguished Agricultural Extension Educator Award for the Southern Region of AAAE.

• Jackie Bruce was named a 2023-24 Provost’s Faculty Fellow.

• Annie Hardison-Moody, along with colleague Sarah Bowen from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, was awarded a Group Recipient Award as part of the Equity for Women Awards celebration.

• In a collaborative effort between Maru Gonzalez, NC State Extension’s #PassTheMicYouth program, Wake County 4-H and Alliance Health, Raleigh held it’s first TedxYouth event.

• Madison Aloia, a freshman majoring in agricultural science, was selected as a Caldwell Fellow.

• Virginia Stage was named a 2022-23 Goodnight Early Career Innovators. The program recognizes and rewards promising NC State early-career faculty whose scholarship is in STEM or STEM education.

• Keonte’ Edmonds, an AEE doctoral student, was recently named an American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture Fellow

• Katie Sanders was introduced as NC State’s first professor of Food Systems Communicator.

• Jackie Bruce was named as a CALS Administrative Faculty Fellows for 2023. Her focus will be on well-being and belonging.

• Maru Gonzalez was recently awarded the Outstanding Faculty Award for the Chancellor’s Creating Community Award for her commitment to the advancement of diversity and inclusion at NC State.

• Jullian Ford, an AEE doctoral student, was named Outstanding Teachers Assistant by NC State’s Graduate Student Association.

Research

• Several faculty members of the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences, along with student assistant Rose Vaughan, collaborated to co-authored an article on the extension education minor.

• Jackie Bruce, Jay Jayaratne, and Katie McKee co-authored a paper on a study that provided insight into the organizational culture (and viability) of the Cooperative Extension System by examining the leadership dynamics, power relationships, and cultural impacts experienced by women County Extension Directors/Coordinators across the nation.

• AHS alumni, Byron Green, recently published a study on faculty decision making within diversity and inclusion with assistance from several AHS faculty. 

• AHS faculty and students presented several papers and six posters at the Southern Region AAAE Conference in February.

• AHS EFNEP staff members presented two posters at the National EFNEP Conference.

Departures

• Sarah Myer left the Eat Smart, Move More, Weigh Less program on January 27.