AgLink - Winter 2023

AgLink

Winter 2023

Tennessee State University College of Agriculture Magazine

a look to the future

College Adds Three New Academic Departments in “Historic” Restructuring Page 12

we have a degree for every dream!

With five concentrations in each B.S. program and five graduate and doctoral programs, we have an Ag degree program for you!

TSU-24-119(A)-12b-17095 - Tennessee State University is an AA/EEO employer

message from the dean: dr. chandra reddy Dear friends and supporters, In our continued quest to serve stakeholders better, we have expanded our academic units in the College of Agriculture from two to five. The College of Agriculture will now have the Department of Agricultural Science and Engineering, the Department of Agricultural Business and Education, the Department of Environmental Science, the Department of Food and Animal Sciences and the Department of Human Sciences. With this new structure, we plan to offer several new academic programs and conduct more focused research and outreach. Many more details of this historic restructuring are included in this issue of Ag Link.

Our faculty members continue to secure extraordinary levels of external grant funding. This past year, it reached $47.4 million, the highest we ever secured, both in total amount and per faculty full-time equivalency.

Similarly, our students continue to excel and win national awards. Many of these students continue to work and learn from experts in their fields in summer sessions; a special story is included in this issue on that topic.

I once again congratulate our outstanding students, faculty and staff who won collegiate awards this past year; see details in the ensuing pages under the title, The Best of Us. Our leaders continue to shine at the national level. Dr. De’Etra Young, the Associate Dean for Academics and Land-Grant Programs, won the Best Teaching Award and I won the National Innovation Award.

I am extremely pleased to share that we have now hired two design teams to develop architectural plans to construct the Food and Animal Science Building and the Environmental and Plant Science Building. Both these buildings are largely funded by grant funds. The State of Tennessee has awarded the University $32.25 million to build the Food and Animal Sciences Building out of the State’s portion of American Rescue Plan funds. The Environmental and Plant Science Building is funded jointly by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the University. We hope to bring these two buildings online by fall 2026.

Our marketing and communications team is taking shape. We now have a four-member team with an additional student worker. I am pleased to announce that Mr. Charles Morrison, who recently joined us as a communications specialist, will serve as the new editor of Ag Link. He worked very hard in pulling some great stories together in collaboration with many individuals, particularly graphic designer Christina Jacob, who contributed significantly to this issue.

Thanks for your continued support of Tennessee State University, the College of Agriculture and our land-grant programs!

Chandra Reddy Dean and Director of Research Administrator of Extension

Winter 2023 | AgLINK 1

Vol. 11 | Issue 1 | Fall 2023

Dean Chandra Reddy Photography by: Aaron Grayson

Editor Charlie Morrison

Graphic Designer Christina Jacob

Contributing Writers Charlie Morrison

table of contents:

4

THE ART OF GRANTSMANSHIP

21

IN PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE

12

A LOOK TO THE FUTURE

27

SMALL FARM EXPO 2023

Dr. De’Etra Young Alexis Clark

Photography Aaron Grayson Joe Thompson III

Stay Connected! @tsucollegeofagriculture @tsucollegeofag @tsucollegeofagriculture TSU College of Agriculture Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (615) 963-7561 www.tnstate.edu/agriculture

Questions/Concerns Email Charlie Morrison at: cmorri43@tnstate.edu

1. Message from the Dean

20. The Seasoned Veteran

3. Message from the Editor

21. In Pursuit of Excellence

8. Space Invaders

25. Advisory Board Meeting

9. The Ties that Bind

29. Summer Stars

10. Setting the Bar

31. In a Class of Their Own

11. Coming Home to Roost

32. Finding Our Future Farmers

16. La Dolce Vita, Tiger-Style

34. Leading a Horse to Water

18. From Farm to Tiger Table

36. The Best of Us

Pictured on the cover: TSU College of Agriculture student Aria McElory poses for a photo in front of green houses. | Cover photo by Aaron Grayson

message from the editor: charlie morrison Greetings from the newly revamped Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) communications team! Thank you for opening this copy of Ag Link, our semi-annual magazine created for you, our TSUAg alumni, friends and stakeholders.

My name is Charlie Morrison and I’m the newly hired Communications and Editorial Specialist at the College. This year marks the 11th year we’re producing the Ag Link, but this issue is the first for myself and TSUAg Graphic Designer Christina Jacob. Christina and I appreciate you taking the time to dive into this issue, and we hope you’re sparked to become a regular reader going forward. It is an exciting time to be at TSUAg! Our cover story in this issue, A Look to the Future, details one of the most impactful structural changes the College has ever undergone in its rich history, the “historic” department restructuring that will see TSUAg grow from two academic departments to five, from seven degree offerings to 14. We for one are excited to bear witness to the evolution of the College.

In this issue, we also highlight the banner year that it was in grantsmanship at the College. In The Art of Grantsmanship, we take a look at some of the secrets of TSUAg’s success in acquiring grants to conduct research, further student opportunities and improve academic outcomes for students at the College.

From the leadership of TSUAg Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy, to the commitment to excellence represented by Associate Dean for Research Dr. Fulya Baysal-Gurel, to the highly active TSUAg faculty members themselves, we examine the tricks of the trade the College employs in grantsmanship that led to the school bringing in a record $47 million in the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

In addition to The Art of Grantsmanship, we take a further look at TSUAg’s grant-getting activities through a trio of stories on individual grants. One piece focuses on the $18 million “NextGen” grant project spearheaded by Professor Dr. John Ricketts. In another story, we speak with TSUAg Assistant Professor Dr. Emmanuel Omondi about his grant-funded project to revitalize the hemp fiber industry in Tennessee. A third piece focuses on the unique, impactful grant-funded project to revitalize TSU’s Tiger Bay Wetland headed up by Associate Dean of Academics and Land-grant Programs, Dr. De’Etra Young.

The centerfold article in this issue, In Pursuit of Excellence, focuses on yet another grant success at TSUAg, the capture of a $1.9 million annual U.S. Department of Agriculture “Centers of Excellence” grant. The grant provides funding for research on conserving and promoting natural resources, exploring renewable energy sources, and developing climate-smart agricultural production practices to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and improve environmental quality and sustainability. Additional stories in this issue of Ag Link will offers perspective into recent student activities at the College, along with others highlighting some of our key, annual events.

It truly is an exciting time to be at TSUAg. Thank you for taking the time to check out this issue of Ag Link!

Charlie Morrison Writer/Editor

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Dr. Sonali Roy was one of the big winners during the 2022-2023 grant season, bringing in over $1.1 million. Dr. Roy working in her lab with TSU Agricultural Sciences (Biotechnology) undergraduate student Shania DeanMotley. Photo by Aaron Grayson.

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the art of

Grantsmanship Lessons learned from a banner year in grantsmanship at the College of Agriculture | By Charlie Morrison

W

hen the dust finally settled on Tennessee State University’s (TSU) 2022-2023 fiscal year, the faculty, staff and administrators dedicated to the school’s pursuit of grant monies knew that they had accomplished something. They’d made a mark that year, like never before.

And when the accountants finally put their calculators down, the figures bore that feeling out. It had been a banner year for TSU in terms of grant monies awarded, a record year.

TSU brought in over $100 million in grants in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, a figure that establishes the University as a powerhouse in research among the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

The figure places TSU in a great position to achieve its goal of getting to the $150 million per year in grant monies mark within the next five years.

If the University can hit that goal, it will have satisfied the grant monies raised component of the coveted Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning’s “R1” designation, which if acquired would place TSU in the top tier of the nation’s research universities.

TSU’s current R2 status makes it elite among HBCUs but pushing to R1 would place the University in the top echelon of universities period.

that establish the fact that TSUAg Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy and the team at the College of Agriculture have truly mastered the art of grantsmanship.

The Big Get In 2022-2023, the big get for TSUAg’s research funding program was the effort led by Dr. John Ricketts to capture some $18.1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (USDA NIFA) $262.5 million “NextGen” grant program. The NextGen grant will fund full scholarships including tuition, room and board, books and other expenses for scores of students over the next five years.

In addition, there are a slew of new programs and opportunities available to students in agriculture that owe their existence to the NextGen grant, including research programs, study abroad programs, internships, even scholarships for high school students to enroll in the TSU Extension’s New Farmer Academy.

The NextGen grant represents perhaps the largest single grant award a member of the College of Agriculture faculty has ever secured on behalf of the school and its students. According to Ricketts, one of the keys to successful grantsmanship is first to simply find the right grant opportunities to apply for.

Dr. John Ricketts brought in the signature grant Powering TSU’s push to the $150 award of the 2022-2023 season, an $18.1 million million mark is the College of “NextGen” grant from the USDA NIFA. Agriculture (TSUAg), the most prolific of the school’s nine colleges in acquiring grant funding. In 2022-2023, TSUAg “It was made for us, it was made for me. I study people. brought in approximately $47 million. Figures like We’ve put a lot of time and energy and effort into

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potential partners in our institution, we introduce them to each other and say, ‘This is an opportunity just recently announced.’ When we believe we have enough capacity of the faculty to address the multidisciplinary aspect of that application we say, ‘Let’s bring this team together.’”

A Competitive Environment According to Dr. Ricketts, Dr. Baysal-Gurel’s role is critical in creating a competitive environment that’s internal to TSUAg. The large faculty body at the College ensures that multiple candidates can typically apply for the same grants; the size of the faculty body begets competition within the College, which in turn brings out the best in individual grant applicants.

Dr. Karla Addesso secured over $2.4 million in USDA-Specialty Crop Research Initiative Grant funding in 2022-2023, money that is funding her “Flatheaded borer management in specialty crops” research project.

student development here at the University,” says Dr. Ricketts. “I used to tell people they don’t have that kind of money for agriculture education, that money is for hard sciences, and then we see this grant and it’s right up our alley. It was a really incredible opportunity.”

And while the NextGen grant serves as the headline-getting grant of the 20222023 fiscal year, it was far from the only grant of significant size TSUAg faculty drove to the University. In the banner year for grantsmanship that it was, a wide group of College of Agriculture faculty made strong contributions.

Ricketts, TSUAg Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy and the Associate Dean, Dr. Young, who are serving as co-project directors, faculty involved in this project include Drs. Alyssa Rockers, Brione Lockett, LaPorchia Davis, Thomas Broyles, Yujuan Chen, Pramir Maharjan, Dilip Nandwani, Agnes Kilonzo-Nthenge and Samuel Nahashon.

The team approach at the College of Agriculture extends much farther than executing the grants, however, it is part of the application process. That said, every team needs a leader, and when it comes to grant applications, the leader of the team at TSUAg is Dr. Fulya Baysal-Gurel.

“There’s an internal process there, that process is led by Dr. Baysal-Gurel. She’ll put an open call out to all the professors and the professors will compete for the right to apply,” says Dr. Ricketts. “There are limits on the number of applications that can be submitted from each university, in the case of the NextGen grant, there were only three spots. So many people wanted to lead it, lead different pieces of it, that we had to have that internal competition to see whose application we’d submit.”

With respect to the NextGen grant, TSUAg could only submit three projects, one for each category of grant funding available. They submitted one for $5 million, another for $10 million and a third $20 million project.

A Team and its Leader

“It usually comes down to the quality of the proposal. It’s a screen so we get the Dr. Baysal-Gurel, the College’s Associate best three projects but it’s also a way to pick who could the three be because, Dean for Research (Interim) and a Reas you could imagine, a lot of people search Associate Professor, coordinates both individual faculty members’ and in- thought they wanted to go for that kind terdisciplinary teams’ grant applications, of money,” continues Ricketts. “After we knew in earnest who the three proposals often pairing faculty members from were going to be from, then there is the different disciplines together to form teams to ensure TSUAg puts its best foot process of getting it to the deadline.” forward.

For evidence that successful grantsmanship takes a team, look no further than the small army of faculty members who are working together on executing the NextGen grant program. Along with

“My role involves introducing (the faculty researchers) to the opportunities,” says Dr. Baysal-Gurel. “In the situation of a competitive grant, if we believe, Dr. Reddy and myself, that we have the

Dr. Karla Addesso secured a grant for just under $2.4 million, Dr. Melanie Cantu acquired a USDA grant for just over $2 million, Dr. Sonali Roy contributed with a $1.1 million grant and Drs. Jianwei Li, De’Etra Young and Hongwei Si each acquired million-dollar grants.

And the list goes on.

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A Diversity of Disciplines

The art of grantsmanship at a research-focused college like TSUAg, according to Dr. Baysal-Gurel, involves putting together the individual pieces

As the College’s Associate Dean for Research, Dr. Fulya BaysalGurel is the leader of the TSUAg grantsmanship team.

into a collective whole, placing individual faculty researchers in collaboration with one another to acquire big, multidisciplinary grants. In this sense, the size of the more than 70-member faculty body at the College is a boon to the school’s prospects when it comes to grants.

“The advantage we have here at the College when it comes to competitive grant applications is that we have multidisciplinary teams here. We have the topnotch experts here, every faculty member comes with a great background,” says Dr. Baysal-Gurel.

“Our role is bringing them together and creating a nice, collaborative environment in which we support each other, that makes us different when it comes to competitive grants, that’s what makes for a strong team.”

Doing Right by the Funds

In Dr. Ricketts’ case, he’s hired a project manager, a student engagement/recruitment coordinator and a project coordinator. He’s bringing in a small team to handle the job of account management, basically to make sure the money is spent the right way not only at TSU but at each of the 10 other partnering institutions that were written into the grant as well. Accounts have to be set up with the University, contracts with partners are necessary and there are even ethical hoops that must be jumped through in executing grant programs. It’s a lot, just ask Dr. Ricketts.

“It’s like running a small business, but unlike a business where you’re trying to save as much as you can, you must spend the money on the business,” he says. “My concern is if we’re holding $3 million at the end of five years, we’re going to look bad.”

For Dr. Quincy Quick, Associate Vice President of Research and Sponsored The art of grantsmanship really comes Programs and Chief Research Officer at into play for TSUAg administrators and TSU, the job of managing grant-funded faculty after the funds hit TSU accounts programs and in effect spending the as well. Grant funds are only useful when money is a job made easier by the fact spent after all, but it’s not as easy as it that Dr. Reddy is providing leadership sounds. Programs built around grant on the topic. monies need meticulous management.

Large projects like the Dr. Ricketts-led “Dr. Reddy has done an excellent job NextGen project require dedicated hires leading the charge because just because to assist with project management. somebody’s going to give you money

doesn’t mean you’re going to do the right thing with it,” says Quick. “He has been productive with it, his team has been productive with it and we’re happy for what they’ve done.”

For Dr. Quick, the College of Agriculture serves as a leader at TSU in terms of grantsmanship, productivity and research. “Agriculture is the model here at the institution for the other colleges to follow,” he says. “They hit all of the criteria that Carnegie would be looking for, doctoral output, research expenditures and the number of non-faculty researchers. They are leading the charge in many respects at the institution.”

“Agriculture is the model here at the institution for the other colleges to follow.”

- Dr. Quincy Quick

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space invaders TSUAg to utilize $5 million grant to refurbish Tiger Bay Wetland, purge invasive species | By Charlie Morrison

Dr. Bill Sutton (pointing) and Dr. Tom Byl (in rear) hosted twenty-five students from the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt in October for an insightful discussion about research, climate change, college choices and more. Drs. Byl and Sutton frequent the wetland for research, teaching and student engagement activities.

T

he long-utilized key teaching resource that is the Tiger Bay Wetland got a huge boost this fall when a group of faculty from the Tennesse State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) took a major step to improve the state of the wetland by successfully securing a $5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forestry Service grant to rehabilitate it. The grant will see a team of faculty members from the College take action to restore harmony at Tiger Bay, which in the past few years has become inundated with invasive species.

The grant, part of the federal government’s Justice40 Initiative and funded by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, is part of a $1 billion push by the USDA to plant and maintain trees in urban areas in an effort to combat climate change and extreme heat. Reportedly the largest single USDA Inflation Reduction Act investment to date in urban and community forests, the $1 billion grant program is being managed by the USDA Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, the only program in the federal government dedicated to enhancing and expanding the nation’s urban forest resources.

Associate Dean of Academics and Landgrant Programs and Associate Professor

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Dr. De’Etra Young headed up TSUAg’s application as the principal investigator on the sizable, $5 million grant, but a team of College faculty joined Young in both applying for the grant and executing the grant program. TSUAg faculty members Drs. Bill Sutton, Tom Byl, Sarah Neumann, Yujuan Chen, Jason de Koff and Reginald Archer are all participating in the rehabilitation program.

A huge component of the rehabilitation of Tiger Bay will be forestry management, and as such, Urban Forestry professors Drs. Neumann, Chen and Young will be taking on the task of determining what new tree species need to be planted to further the health of the ecosystem, and also what invasive species need removal.

Dr. Archer will work to better map the facility, creating geospatial and topographic maps of the natural resources at Tiger Bay. Wetlands regulars Dr. Sutton and Dr. Byl will be deeply involved in the project, making considerations for the wildlife and vegetation at the facility. “Dr. Sutton and I work closely together on the health of the wetland,” says Dr. Byl. “We use it for classes and research.”

Dr. Sutton took on the task of planning the wetlands restoration portion of the

project. Sutton is partnering up with ecological restoration company Resource Environmental Solutions, and together they will focus their efforts on ecosystem restoration in the wetlands themselves. “We are planning a full-scale wetland restoration to remove invasive species and to re-plant with native species,” says Dr. Sutton.

Dr. Byl’s role will be focused on the hydrology and water quality that is needed for a healthy wetland. Excessive nutrients present at Tiger Bay have provided a ripe environment for the development of cyanobacteria and toxic algae blooms, and for the better part of a half-decade, they’ve been an unwanted part of the ecosystem at the wetlands. For Dr. Byl, who has been involved in student-oriented wetlands research for 20 years, this project offers the opportunity to continue his longstanding work on the algae.

“The wetland has tremendous value, and we are very lucky to have it so convenient to our campus,” Dr. Byl continues. “Our goal with the funding is to revitalize the wetland.

We also want to make it more accessible to the TSU community and the public. It is greenspace for the neighborhood. The wetland serves as a critical habitat for migrating waterfowl, local birds, turtles, beavers, fish and other animals.”

THE TIES THAT BIND Grant-funded Hemp Project Straddles Public/Private Industry in Support of Commodity | By Charlie Morrison

I

n a move that places the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) at the center of a discussion over the state’s fiber hemp industry, a consortium led by TSU’s Dr. Emmanuel Omondi recently secured a $5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) grant that’s sure to have impacts on Tennessee hemp farmers. Designed to develop both supply and demand for the versatile fiber, the grant has the capacity to truly alter the landscape for the state’s fiber hemp industry, making it easier for farmers to develop, build out and execute successful hemp production.

The crux of the five-year grant-funded project, titled “Climate-Smart Fiber Hemp: A Versatile Thread Connecting the Nation’s Underserved Farmers, Climate Change Mitigation and Novel Market Opportunities,” is a subsidy that will provide growers a risk-free way to begin or expand their fiber hemp cultivation efforts. The subsidy in effect allows Tennessee farmers to introduce or expand hemp production for five years with no risk, as delegated hemp crop yields will be “purchased” with grant monies and distributed to end users in a variety of industries at no cost to the users.

for the crop from industries operating in the state, notably the automobile, textile and building industries.

The project is part of the USDA’s effort to flesh out climate-smart commodities called its Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, which is designed to “finance pilot projects that create market opportunities for U.S. agricultural and forestry products that use climatesmart practices and include innovative, cost-effective ways to measure and verify greenhouse gas benefits.”

This grant will be used to explore the synergies between growers, regulators and industries who use the versatile fiber, in effect providing a test case for hemp to be examined as a climate-smart commodity.

Dr. Emmanuel Omondi, photo by TSU Media Relations

yes, hopes to drive existing Tennessee fiber hemp growers to expand their capacity, but he also hopes to recruit farmers with dormant properties to restart their farming projects with this no-risk hemp project.

“Success would be sustaining the supply and demand beyond five years,” Dr. Omondi continues. “Tennessee has the capacity to grow tens of thousands of acres of hemp and that, to me, would be a game changer as far as not just improving the capacity of the state in terms of building the industry, but all in the difference it would make in mitigating climate change as well.”

“This is a grant meant to support growers and to promote “The farmers are already interested in growing hemp, they just don’t want to grow it at a loss, they want to make some money fiber hemp The grant project involves a partnership which this grant provides,” he continues. between TSU, non-profit the Hemp “It provides a modicum of not just money as a climateAlliance of Tennessee, the University of for growing the hemp but after the hemp Tennessee and the Tennessee Department is harvested the grant would give them the of Agriculture. The effort to enhance equivalent of the profit they would make smart the state’s hemp capacity, an example of from selling this hemp.” private and public sector players working commodity.” together to make an impact on an industry, There is a component of the project is designed to both increase capacity in the state to produce the crop and the demand

“This is a grant meant to support growers and to promote fiber hemp as a climatesmart commodity,” says Dr. Omondi, an Assistant Professor of Agronomy and Industrial Hemp Extension Specialist at the College. “The main objective is to recruit growers and provide them with all they need to grow hemp on up to 500 acres.”

designed to recruit farmers in traditionally underserved counties as well. Dr. Omondi

- Dr. Emmanuel Omondi

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setting the Bar Professor Leads Team in Landing TSUAg’s Biggest Grant Award of the Year

By Charlie Morrison

I

n the banner year of research funding that was the 2022-2023 fiscal year, a year that saw the College of Agriculture bring in some $47 million in grant funds and sponsorships, there was one award that stood above the rest. For its size, for the number of parties involved, for its complexity, the successful proposal led by Dr. John Ricketts to bring in $18.1 million United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) dollars places it at the head of this year’s grant class.

In winning the award, and at such an important time at the University as the school pushes for the prestigious “R1” research university status, Dr. Ricketts won the day. In doing so, he set the bar for not only TSUAg but the school as a whole.

USDA NIFA’s grant program is titled “From Learning to Leading: Cultivating the Next Generation of Diverse Food and Agriculture Professionals,” (NextGen).

The Inflation Reduction Act-funded program is an “investment in higher education to create and sustain a more diverse workforce for the next generation of food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences professionals.”

TSU’s project, entitled “NEXTGENeration Inclusion Consortium for Building the Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Human Sciences Pipeline,” was acquired and will be managed using a team approach.

Along with Dr. Ricketts, there is a small army of TSU faculty involved in this project. Even TSU as a whole has to take a team approach. The grant mandates that Ricketts and TSU will oversee a project that involves numerous components, dozens of stakeholders and 10 other learning institutions.

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Dr. John Ricketts and Dr. Chandra Reddy, TSU’s Dean of Agriculture, were on hand for the official announcement of the $18.1 million grant award in Washington.

“It’s a monster. I’m only written into the grant for 25 percent of my salary but I’m probably spending 80 percent of my time on it right now,” says Dr. Ricketts.

“Once it’s all set up and rolling and we get all of our staff hired I’m hoping that 25 percent is more realistic but pretty much all I’m doing right now is managing the project.”

The NextGen grant will primarily fund full scholarships for scores of students over the next five years.

Scholarships include tuition, room and board, books and other expenses. In addition, there are a slew of new programs and opportunities available to students in agriculture that owe their existence to the NextGen grant, including research programs, study abroad programs, internships, even scholarships for high school students to enroll in the TSU Extension’s New Farmer Academy.

“What all of our long list of activities is built on, what the theory tells us is if students have an experience with agriculture they’re more likely to go into it, if they have a mentor in agriculture they’re more likely to go into it, if they don’t have the barrier of financial resources to pay for school they’re more likely to go into it,” says Dr. Ricketts. “We’re creating a pipeline and we’re sustaining a pipeline. The pipeline is everything from elementary school to ‘I got a job in agriculture.’”

“Bringing more in, keeping them here, getting them placed, those are the three goals,” he continues.

Scores of TSUAg alumni dropped by “the Barn” for the annual Homecoming alumni breakfast, held ahead of the Homecoming parade on Oct. 14. The event featured National Agriculture Alumni Organization elections, speakers, presentations and a big spread of breakfast foods.

Coming home to roost Members of National Agriculture Alumni Organization Show Up En Masse for Annual Alumni Breakfast | By Charlie Morrison

T

he Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg), on Saturday, Oct. 14, opened its doors wide for its annual Homecoming alumni breakfast and business meeting and, as evidenced by the scores of College of Agriculture alumni who showed up, the event remains quite popular. Held early on Saturday morning in advance of the TSU Homecoming parade, the breakfast brought in alumni from across the city, the region and the country.

The Homecoming breakfast served as a de-facto annual meeting for the TSU College of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Alumni Organization and as such, most in attendance at the event were members of the official organization uniting TSUAg alumni.

After an opening prayer and the serving of a breakfast catered by local Nashville company Catering by Iris, the group got down to business, electing a new slate of officers at the meeting.

A quick vote cemented in place the new officers, including incoming National Agriculture Alumni Organization President James Reaves, President-elect Nathan Crisp, Secretary Howard Hill and Treasurer Terri Sned.

New organization alumni President James Reaves addressed the gathering upon his election. “Thank you all for entrusting me to fill this position,” said Reaves. “I won’t let you down, I promise.”

Following Reaves’ address, College of Agriculture Associate Dean of Academics and Land-grant Programs Dr. De’Etra Young introduced a pair of students to the audience, giving attendees a sense of the current student body. Young introduced TSU sophomore and pre-veterinary major Mckenna Harris along with secondyear food science Ph.D. student ChaKenna Fletcher to the audience, and both gave brief synopses of their experience at the College.

“The College of Agriculture has done so much for me, I would not be where I am today without them,” said Fletcher.

“We definitely are a family here. I love Ag. and I love TSU.” College of Agriculture Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy was the next to take the podium at the breakfast, giving meeting attendees an update of the College’s recent activities. “We are ranked number two in terms of the

academic side among the 19 1890 institutions,” said Reddy. “We got here by steadily growing our undergraduate programs by 600%.”

“We also have graduate programs that have multiplied by 10 times,” continued Reddy. “We used to have about 10 graduate students, today we have about 130 graduate students, about 30 of which are Ph.D. students. We used to offer one master’s degree, today we offer four master’s degrees.”

On the research component of the College’s activities, Reddy was buoyant.

“We are doing very well with grants,” he continued. “We have 15 percent of the University’s faculty yet we submitted 83% of the total grant proposals.

From a USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) perspective, from a TSU perspective, we’re really doing well.”

Reddy rounded out his comments by educating the alumni in attendance about some of the infrastructure growth coming to the College of Agriculture. Several new buildings will be constructed on campus in the coming years, reported Reddy, to the tune of approximately $90 million in primarily grant-funded investment.

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a look to t

College of Agriculture Initiates “Historic” Restructuring in Spring Semester

W

ith the spring, 2024 semester upon us, change is in the air at the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg). This spring, the College begins a transformative process to restructure its departments and degree offerings, siloing what were concentrations in the Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Department into departments and degree programs of their own. The

departmental overhaul is a change Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy has been considering since he arrived at TSU over 15 years ago, a change he calls “historic,” as the departments at the College are set to grow from two to five and the degree offerings multiply from seven to 14.

The crux of the restructuring is the dissolution of the bloated Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Department, a unit

that has served as a catch-all department for all things related to agriculture at the College for decades. The single, outsized department will be replaced by four individualized, agriculture-related departments, each with its own dedicated faculty, curriculum structure and degree offerings.

What was the Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Department will

TSUAg is looking to the future with its “historic” project to restructure the College. Though the undergraduate degree programs will take some time to fully transition to the new departments, current students like Senior Aria McElroy are happy the change will benefit the future of TSUAg.

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the future

By Charlie Morrison

become four departments: the Department of Agricultural Sciences and Engineering; the Department of Environmental Sciences; the Department of Food and Animal Sciences and the Department of Agricultural Business and Education.

Human Sciences will remain the College’s fifth academic department.

“Any time you hear about restructuring, whether it’s a company or any organization,

the main purpose is to achieve new efficiencies, more focus,” says Dr. Reddy.

“So, we want to achieve that focus on our products, on what I call avenues of achievement.”

“When I look at all these programs, they’re not a good fit under the title of Agricultural Science. You’re dealing with the environment, which is different, agribusiness, which is different, food science… they may fit under the big picture of the College of Agriculture but they’re also specialized,” he continues. “For us to produce a product that has adequate depth on the skill sets that are needed by the hirers, whether it is the government or corporations, we need to separate them out and provide them that depth.”

Mechanics of Restructuring The mechanics of the restructuring are nothing if not complicated. The process will begin with the master’s degree programs, which as of this spring semester will be housed in the new respective departments. Those programs have been vetted and cleared by both the Tennessee State University Board of Trustees and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC), which has oversight over TSU as a public, state university.

The undergraduate programs and Ph.D. programs for the three new departments will, for now, continue to be housed under the reformed Agricultural Sciences and Engineering Department until such a time as they can be vetted and moved as well. Eventually, each of the five academic departments will feature undergraduate, master’s degree and Ph.D. programs, save Human Sciences, which has no Ph.D. program. First, however, the management piece must be done.

Before the change, a total of 72 Ph.D. faculty were housed under the Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Department, overseen by department head Dr. Samuel Nahashon. That total will be split amongst the four new degree programs, with each faculty member being placed in departments appropriate to their specialty.

By siloing the degree programs, the College will be creating more tight-knit, homogeneous departments where faculty and department heads will manage students and faculty who are working in their specific field.

With the structural changes in place as we begin the spring 2024 semester, new department heads Dr. Korsi Dumenyo (Agricultural Science and Engineering), Dr. Bharat Pokharel (Environmental Science), Nahashon (Food and Animal Sciences) and Dr. Prabodh Illukpitiya (Agribusiness and Education) will be empowered to build out their departments, hire faculty and make alterations to their degree programs as needed.

“This is the first step, getting the faculty housed in their respective departments, and then we’ll tell the faculty, ‘You now have your own home, you’re going to create your own programs,’” says Dr. Reddy.

With the master’s degree programs in place,

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a level where we say ‘Ok, now is time to do it.’ I’ve been here 15 years and it took a long time to get here to do these things.”

Benefits - The Administration

TSUAg’s new Department of Agricultural Business and Education has emerged from what was the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Faculty from the new Department of Food and Animal Sciences are excited to work as a new unit.

the administration will begin readying the undergrad and Ph.D. programs for their move. Applications for the change must go to both internal TSU review and that of the THEC, and the process can take anywhere from 12 to 18 months as a whole. Reddy and his team are targeting the 2028 spring graduation ceremony as the first time they’ll actually hand out undergraduate degrees from the new degree programs.

The Time is Now If anything is directly driving the restructuring to happen it is enrollment, specifically the rise in TSUAg enrollment.

Student body numbers at the College have grown steadily under the Reddy administration, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Only when the College can demonstrate to both the university and the state that it has enrollment figures that are sufficient to support both the new programs and the rebranded and reformed Agricultural Science and

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Engineering Department can the switch take place. The past few years have seen the College collecting data on enrollment it is now utilizing in making the claim for restructuring.

“We are ranked number two in terms of the academic side among the 19 1890 institutions. We got here by steadily growing our undergraduate programs by 600 percent. We also have graduate programs that have multiplied by 10 times,” continues Reddy. “We used to have about 10 graduate students, today we have about 130 graduate students, about 30 of which are Ph.D. students. We used to offer one master’s degree, today we offer four master’s degrees.”

“We as an administration, neither myself nor (TSU President) Dr. (Glenda) Glover could embrace these changes or do these things in the past because we didn’t have the adequate size either in money or in students,” says Reddy. “Now, we’ve reached

No one has borne the weight of the longtime bloat at the Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Department than professor and department head Samuel Nahashon. As the head of a department that has grown exponentially over the recent past, Nahashon has borne the brunt of the growing pains the department has experienced as the student and faculty numbers have steadily risen. “(Restructuring) is going to impact me big time. Right now, I’m managing this monolith of a department. It has everything in it. In terms of the workload, it’s a huge relief to go from just one centralized department chair, to get all of that load shared amongst four department chairs,” says Nahashon, who is currently mentoring each of the new department heads on the responsibilities of the position.

The benefits to Nahashon aside, the restructuring project is sure to garner a greater level of buy-in amongst the faculty, he asserts. Decentralizing what was a huge program into several smaller programs allows each faculty member to have a bigger impact on his or her department.

That heightened buy-in, says Nahashon, will pay dividends.

“I think the centralized management, where now you break up the program in a good sense into the new degree programs, that gives the faculty more of a sense of ownership,” he says. “It’s easier for them to communicate and announce that they’re building their own programs now.”

Benefits - The Students The restructuring of the College will be a boon to the administration for sure, but what about the student body? For Reddy and Nahashon, the students stand to gain the most from the restructuring. At present, graduated students have a challenge marketing their degree considering the concentration they chose isn’t a part of the actual degree in name. In addition, they aren’t part of a specialized department under their major.

“Right now, because everyone is together,

everyone has the same basic core curriculum and then we try to give them a certain specialization, but if you want to go in-depth for something like a Ph.D. degree or you want to do more advanced research you need to have your own home where you are managed by somebody who specializes in that field,” says Reddy. “And then you have the industry, the government can see that they can connect with you directly, the recruiters can see that they can connect to that department.”

Greater visibility into the College’s degree programs will help students better understand what they stand to gain by choosing one program or another. In turn, hirers will have a much easier time vetting potential hires. Degree programs will be specific and straightforward, streamlining the process government and private sector hirers will go through in determining what level of knowledge a TSU candidate actually brings to a position.

“When you have now these degree programs, that narrows the subject matter into the focus of specific disciplines. Also when you’re marketing the programs, it will be much easier,” says Nahashon.

“Someone goes and looks at the curriculum it’s very clear, the degree program is reflective of the degree.”

to the newly created departments is the first step of the process of restructuring at the College, constructing new infrastructure to better house what will be the five departments may be the final step.

numbers keep growing, when new facilities have been constructed, Dean Reddy may just look back on this as one of his key achievements at the College. That said, he remains humble about his own impact.

Under Reddy’s leadership, the College has already secured $90 million in funding for two new buildings set to be constructed on the College of Agriculutre’s sub-campus.

In addition to the new construction slated for the coming years, two other buildings, Lawson Hall and Humphries Hall are likely to be renovated as well. At complete buildout, the expanded College campus will have the capacity to support the new academic programs and more.

“Certainly the college is in a much better place today than when I arrived. The big danger of any of the legacy issues is, especially in smaller schools, the continuation of the legacy, building on top of it,” he continues. “That is a bigger responsibility for faculty and the administration. That’s why anything we do we make sure when we submit it that everybody loves it, it’s not any one person’s pet project. That way it has universal support beyond somebody’s title.”

“As it is, we don’t have adequate infrastructure,” says Reddy. “We are partially addressing it in building two new agriculture buildings that will house a couple of these new departments and the others will remain in their old facilities.”

Impacts on Legacy When the restructuring project has been carried out successfully, when enrollment

The new, five-department structure of the College is sure to pay dividends in the coming year and beyond for students, faculty members and TSUAg administration. Though the project to fully make the transition is sure to take some time, this spring semester will stand as an inflection point after which the academic life at TSUAg will never again be the same.

Benefits - The University Aside from the extensive benefits to the administration and TSUAg students, the change also offers ancillary benefits for the University, particularly when it comes to its pursuit of the sought-after Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning’s “R1” designation. The College of Agriculture already contributes much to TSU’s pursuit of the designation, and the addition of the three additional B.S. degree programs and three additional Ph.D. programs that will eventually take shape in the new departments at the College will give the effort a further boost.

The brand-new Department of Environmental Science has been developed into its own department.

“The push to R1 has to do more with doctoral output than research dollars,” says Quincy Quick, Associate Vice President of Research and Sponsored Programs and Chief Research Officer at TSU. “Quite honestly, Agriculture plays a critical role in that push to R1 for a number of reasons.”

Infrastructure Evolution While the spring 2024 transition of the faculty and the master’s degree programs

The Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences has been streamlined and refocused into the new, slimmed-down Department of Agricultural Science and Engineering.

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La Dolce Vita , Tiger-style UT-Martin and TSU’s Fashion Abroad program sends 11 Tigers to the Capital of Fashion | By Charlie Morrison

I

t got off to a bit of a rocky start, but once the 2023 University of Tennessee-Martin and Tennessee State University-led Fashion Abroad study abroad program got started, it was a sprint to the finish, in heels of course. Overcoming early bouts of culture shock and homesickness, TSU professor Dr. LaPorchia Davis led a large group from TSU, many of whom had never left Middle Tennessee before, on an extensive, six-and-a-half-week exploration of all things Italian fashion.

The trip was the first of what Dr. Davis plans to be a yearly, fashion-

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focused study abroad series in Italy each summer. As evidenced by this first adventure, which saw the group explore their “home” city of Siena, along with Milan, Florence and Rome, there are study abroad opportunities, and then there are study abroad opportunities like this, opportunities to have an informative, life-changing, impactful experience studying a subject at its geographical headquarters.

would say that it was a culture shock to the students because they were finally recognizing that they were not in the United States, they were in a whole different place where they had to learn on their own and get out of their comfort zones.”

The group arrived in Milan on June 7 and spent four days touring the de-facto capital of the world of global fashion. Highlights included the Armani Museum and the Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral), in all of its 251-step glory.

It’s true, not all study abroad programs are created equal.

“It was a really great experience,” says Dr. Davis, a member of TSU’s Family “It was a lot of steps,” laughs Dr. Davis. and Consumer Sciences faculty. “I “It was a good, eye-opening experience

A total of 11 students from TSU joined Dr. LaPorchia Davis for the Fashion Abroad study abroad program. Students stayed in Italy for over six weeks, studying the Italian fashion industry and spending time in Siena, Milan, Rome and Florence.

to get them prepared for what Italy was going to be about. It’s about culture, it’s about learning how the Italians do their everyday life, this is what they do, they walk every single day.”

“The girls had to really open to Italy,” she continues. “Some of the spaces were extremely small and they’re used to walking into big rooms… getting on buses that are really packed, and they’re not really used to their personal space being invaded,” she continues. “Once they got through the first week in Italy and they got the opportunity to try the gelato and eat the pizza and really capture what was happening in Italy they were able to open up a bit more about learning new cultures and studying fashion.”

dive into Italian life, according to Dr. Davis. Aspects of life such as sleeping without air conditioning and hanging wet clothes on the clothesline proved cumbersome at first, but the students grew to like the differences. “They were literally living as if they were Italians.”

Later excursions to Florence and Rome really brought the experience of city life in Italy full circle. Not only was the group able to explore worldclass museums like Florence’s Uffizi Gallery and one-of-a-kind locales like Vatican City in Rome, but the group was able to feel a part of the vibrancy of life in Italian cities.

“The students really enjoyed Florence a lot because the city where we were stationed, Siena, is more of a From Milan, the group traveled to community. It wasn’t as diverse as it Siena, the city where they’d make their was in Florence. It was almost like a home base for the next six weeks. melting pot similar to New York City.

Small in comparison to Milan, Siena You got to hear some English there, offered the group the chance to really you got to experience other cultures.

In Florence and before that in Milan, they absolutely loved it.”

As for the fashion, it took a little getting used to as well. Designers in Italy, the group learned, work with much more subtlety domestically than when creating for American audiences.

“Students did recognize the quiet luxury, the style of dress and not seeing designers like that, they might have a designer piece but it wasn’t as loud as it is in the United States,” continues Dr. Davis. “We all know Gucci, Gucci, Gucci because we can see it, but in Italy, it wasn’t like that at all. The students kind of embraced that, some of them are now taking the style that they saw in Italy and tweaking it to infuse with their own aesthetic.”

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TSU Professor & Chair of the Department of Human Sciences Dr. Veronica Oates and Malcom Barfield of Plano Produce have formed a solid partnership in bringing fresh produce to campus.

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From Farm to Tiger Table The Tiger Fresh Farmer’s Market Debuts this fall on Campus

By Charlie Morrison

F

ueled by a determination to make Tennessee State University a place where discussions about food safety, food insecurity and nutrition happen, the College of Agriculture’s Dr. Veronica Oates introduced this fall an event that’s sure to plant roots here on campus, the Tiger Fresh Farmer’s Market. The event was created by Oates to be a link in the chain of healthy eating here on campus, one piece of a larger discussion she believes needs to happen.

“There’s a scripture that I always think about. “It says, ‘My people perish for a lack of knowledge,’” says Dr. Oates, sitting at her desk behind a myriad of books on food justice and availability. “We’re trying to improve the quality of lives, and nutrition I think is the basic way to do it.”

The Tiger Fresh Farmer’s Market offers both a hard and fast location to purchase farm-to-table vegetables and a hub where food security is a discussion that warrants attention.

The market debuted on a rainy afternoon in September before running successfully three more times, making Humphries Hall parking lot a hot spot for fresh produce on Thursdays in the fall.

campus at TSU made sense for the farm, according to Malcom Barfield, who manages Plano’s TSU satellite.

Oates got a push on creating the market from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service Farmers Market Team, who worked with the Farmers Market Coalition in providing a grant to kickstart the event. TSU served as the home of one of three pilot programs the USDA is helping manage at 1890 LandGrant Universities. Dr. Oates used some of the initial grant monies to market the event and acquire the necessary gear but in the future, she hopes to use some of the money to purchase a plot at the University’s community garden and drive produce to the market that way.

One facet of the market Dr. Oates is proud of is the tie-in with the University’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance ProgramEducation (SNAP-Ed) program, which kept a booth at each installment of the market. TSU’s SNAP-Ed team provides education to students on cooking, stretching their food dollars, using tools in the kitchen and more. Their inclusion at the market just makes sense for Dr. Oates.

“You think good food is available but a lot of it is based on your economics, and that in itself leads to health inequities,” Oates continues. “That’s what our focus is on, for students to understand what fresh food is, how we get our food, the access to the food… it’s not out of a machine.”

“We have to talk about what we’re eating because food and culture are so intertwined. It’s not honoring our ancestors to eat certain foods because they were forced to eat it,” she says.

“It’s not something they chose to eat and if they knew that we were still eating it do you think they would be happy or pleased? No, they wouldn’t.”

“We’re dealing with food deserts, health inequities, we’re dealing with all of this along with the question of why it is important for students to know and understand nutrition,” she continues.

“For me, my utopia would be not so much that everything is perfect, but rather that we have a self-sustaining system of people coming in and it’s not just one area, it really becomes how you live,” she says.

Several vendors called on the market this fall, but when it came to fresh produce the principal supplier to the Tiger Fresh Farmer’s Market was Plano Produce, from Plano, Kentucky. The farm peddles its produce at the nearby Nashville Farmer’s Market, so having a second stand on

The Tiger Fresh Farmer’s Market will be back next Fall for its second run at the College of Agriculture.

For more information on the event or how to help, contact Dr. Veronica Oates by email at voates@tnstate.edu.

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The

SeasonedVeteran Agriculture Student Wimberly Returns to TSU Board for Second Consecutive Year | By Charlie Morrison

University President Dr. Glenda Glover first appointed Wimberly to serve on the Board in June of 2022. Wimberly, Jr., a Louisville, Kentucky native and a second-generation TSU student, is an Agribusiness major with a minor in Philosophy. His second term on the Board began with the fall semester and will run through June. According to Wimberly, Jr., having the first year on the Board under his belt is a boon to his ability to contribute this year.

“The first year I had imposter syndrome. I didn’t really feel like I was in a place where I belonged and that’s the main thing I took into this year, that I do belong in this space,” says Wimberley, Jr. “The biggest thing is confidence. Coming into my second year I had to say to myself, ‘You’ve always wanted to be in this space, you’ve always wanted to help not only the students but also the University and your community with a platform like this and now here’s your chance. Believe that this is where you’re supposed to be.’”

TSU Senior and College of Agriculture student Shaun Wimberly, Jr. was recently nominated to serve on the University’s Board of Trustees as the dedicated Student Trustee for the second consecutive year.

T

ennessee State University (TSU) has some extra experience on its Board of Trustees this year, but that experience is coming from an unexpected source. TSU undergrad Shaun Wimberly, Jr. was this summer appointed to serve on the University’s Board of Trustees as the designated Student Trustee for the second consecutive year. Wimberly, Jr., a senior at TSU, is serving another one-year term on the Board as a non-voting member, and while he doesn’t vote on issues that appear before the body, he takes his role on the Board as the eyes and ears of the student body very seriously.

“My first year was so exciting because you took a boy, a young man who was really a nobody but had a passion for advocacy and for building a better university, and then you placed this child into a role that is the highest level of student leadership right on the Board of Trustees,” said Wimberly, Jr. during a recent interview.

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The appointment is just the latest in a long line of honors for the decorated student. Wimberly, Jr. is not only a staple on the College of Agriculture’s honor roll, but he’s also the recipient of the National Academy of Future Scientists and Technologists Award of Excellence, a member of the FedEx Historically Black College and University Student Ambassador program, the Mister for TSU’s chapter of the Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) group, a member of Leadership

TSU and also TSU’s Men’s Initiative.

Wimberly sports a spiffy 3.5 grade point average, to boot.

Wimberly, Jr. says that his time on the Board has, in effect, changed the lens through which he views the University if not life in general. “It changes your perspective. You are definitely in a different space. I definitely operate in two lanes and it’s hard to do that,” he says.

“It just changes the way you look at everything and it’s a good change, but it’s another level of maturity,” he continues.

“You’re not, as a student, just complaining about issues, you’re looking to see what has caused them, you’re looking to see how you can fix them, you’re looking to see if we have enough resources, do we have the right staffing… It’s pushed me out of the mindset of a regular student forever.”

Since he was first appointed to serve, Wimberly, Jr. has been part of some intense discussions about key issues facing the University. When he first joined the Board, the body was in the throes of discussing the student housing crisis and potential legislation that threatened the Board’s existence. At their most recent, Nov. 16 meeting, the $2.1 billion state government shortfall was discussed. There has been no shortage of tension-filled topics, but that hasn’t scared Wimberly, Jr. away, it’s emboldened him. “No one else on the Board is an expert on the students’ day-today experience and life because they’re not students here,” said Wimberly, Jr. “This role is so vital.”

Wimberly, Jr. will serve on the TSU Board of Trustees as the Student Trustee for a period that extends past his graduation in May to June 2024.

The Center of Excellence program supports climate-focused research on water quality. Here, TSU students Faith Perry and Kristi Hill assess water quality at the Tiger Bay Wetland with Dr. Tom Byl.

in pursuit of

excellence

TSUAg Takes on Climate Change as Head of Collegiate Centers of Excellence Collaboration | By Charlie Morrison

I

n the face of mounting evidence that global climate change and environmental degradation from human activity pose critical threats to environmental sustainability, the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) has taken the lead on the 1890 Centers of Excellence in Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment: A Climate Smart Approach (COE-NREE) program, placing the College front and center in the global discussion on the preeminent threat facing humanity. On the topic of climate change, TSUAg is right where it needs to be, on the front lines of the fight for our future.

As the lead university of the 1890 system-wide initiative, TSU is guiding multidisciplinary teams from the College and partner institutions Alabama A&M University (AAMU), Southern University, Florida A&M University and Langston

University in conducting important, real-world research on issues related to global climate change. TSUAg Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy is serving as the COE-NREE’s Project Director, and as such he’s been tasked with managing and executing the complex, multidisciplinary, multi-university program. He will be assisted in his role by a pair of faculty members from the College, Co-Project Directors Dr. De’Etra Young, TSU’s Associate Dean for Academics and Land-Grant Programs, and Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology Dr. Bill Sutton.

At its core, the Center of Excellence program creates a collaboration between a handful of 1890 Land-Grant Universities around the topics of climate change, sustainability and natural resource management that seeks to accomplish teaching, research and cooperative extension

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goals. What is effectively a virtual center of study was established to create academic and professional, public-private networks around specific research areas, in this case, those related to climate change.

The research conducted as part of the COE-NREE must benefit rural and agriculture-based communities and reduce poverty, health disparities and the economic vulnerability of local communities, according to the grant.

Along with that mission, the program was created to resource students engaging in promising research areas and allow them to obtain formal credentials in the field. This piece of the program fits with its secondary goal to stimulate the development of a capable workforce.

The COE-NREE has both a hard edge of research and a student development component. The crux of the program, which is funded by a $1.9 million annual U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant, is the execution of collaborative, dataproducing research in four thrust areas, natural resource management and conservation; sustainable energy and agricultural production; environmental protection and equity; and workforce training and development. The project incentivizes 1890 universities to work together on the climate change issue, something Reddy for one embraces.

“Together with our 1890 partners, we will not only generate smart ways to manage climate change problems but also train the minority workforce in this all-important field,” Dr. Reddy says about the program. “This Center of Excellence will strengthen our graduate programs and improve our research and extension capabilities in the climate change field.”

“These grants continue to support projects that address critical needs for developing global food security and defense, enhance academic and career activities for students pursuing careers in food and agricultural sciences, and address vital needs in nutrition and health to improve the quality of life of underserved populations,” he continues.

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TSU undergrad Aaliyah Cotton is working on research related to the Center of Excellence program. For the research she works in the field and the lab, here performing an analysis of water, looking for an algal toxin called microcystin.

The four thrust areas will each feature collaborations by research professors, graduate and even undergraduate students at the respective universities on specific focal objectives, individual faculty-led research projects designed to contribute data and findings to the thrust area. As the project will continue for at least three and potentially five years, the effort so far has been to initiate the research, with results and data generated by the research to be published for public consumption down the line.

Natural Resource Management & Conservation The first thrust area, on natural resource management and conservation, is being coordinated by Dr. Sutton and

AAMU researcher Dr. Yong Wang and features four focal research objectives, forest biomass modeling, forest and wildlife responses to management, forest structure and vegetation dynamics and forest management and carbon sequestration.

TSUAg Associate Professor Dr. Bharat Pokharel will lead a team studying the effects of climate change on the productivity of forest ecosystems, particularly above-ground forest biomass growth. Pokharel will be conducting his research project using survey plots at the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Tennessee.

Drs. Sutton, Wang and fellow AAMU research professor Dr. Xiongwen Chen

will team up on a pair of projects for the natural resources management and conservation piece of the COENREE. The trio are collaborating on one project to understand forest and wildlife responses to forest management and another to better understand forest structure and vegetation dynamics. The work on forest management will be done on longleaf pine trees in the Bankhead National Forest (BNF) in Alabama.

of the program is being conducted by Dr. Reddy himself, with concurrent research being performed by TSUAg’s Dr. Clement Akumu. Drs. Reddy and Akumu will be researching the effects of no-till and cover cropping and precision agriculture, respectively. The pair of projects focus on farming practices that are site-specific and centered around enhancing the quality of the soil and the water at an agriculture site.

Research for the fourth focal research objective on forest management and carbon sequestration features a pair of research projects that are being conducted by faculty from partner universities.

A third focus of the renewable energy research being conducted as part of the COE-NREE, work focused on climate change-driven crop and livestock adaptation, is being conducted by TSUAg’s Dr. Matthew Blair and Dr. Richard Browning. Blair’s work, to be conducted in conjunction with the USDA, is dedicated to the study of grain amaranths, specifically their seed yield and biomass vigor. Dr. Browning’s efforts will be on cattle breeding, specifically the cross of a Dexter cattle with a Mashona cattle to generate a small, heat-tolerant cattle genotype.

In addition to the research taking place across the southeast, projects related to the natural resource management and conservation thrust of the COE-NREE are supporting dozens of undergraduate and graduate students, including TSUAg Environmental Sciences master’s student Rachel Brubaker, who conducted research as part of the project at BNF.

A third adaptation project on the adaptation of aquaculture communities in the face of climate change is being conducted by researchers from partner universities.

The renewable energy thrust area supports six students currently completing graduate and undergraduate research theses and an additional five post-graduate degree students. TSUAg doctoral student Aaron Felts is just one of many Tigers who have worked with faculty on the research. Felts conducted his doctoral research on sweet sorghum as a bioenergy crop as part of the project.

Environmental Protection and Equity The third thrust area, focused on environmental protection and equity, is also led by a TSUAg faculty member, Dr. De’Etra Young. Dr. Tom Byl, Dr. Jianwei Li, Dr. Reginald Archer and Dr. Sudipta Rakshit also represent TSU in

Renewable Energy and Climate-Smart Agriculture Dr. Reddy leads a cadre of TSUAg faculty who are working on projects related to the second thrust area focusing on renewable energy and climate-smart agriculture. The renewable energy thrust area features three dedicated research projects, one focused on biomass production for biofuels, another that focuses on sustainable agriculture practices and a third that deals with climate changedriven adaptation in crops.

The biomass project is actually three projects in one. TSUAg Extension Professor Dr. Jason de Koff will be heading up research into the impact sulfur and nitrogen have on winter canola production. Follow TSUAg professor Dr. Ahmad Aziz is pursuing research on raising the quantity and quality of ethanol produced from sweet sorghum and the College’s Dr. Dafeng Hui is investigating whether adding nitrogen and biochar to switchgrass production increases output. The sustainable agriculture practices piece

TSU’s Center of Excellence lead university status enables wetland research on harmful algal blooms.

Avion Brown measures the turbidity of the water in the upper Tiger Bay Wetland using the Secchi tube method.

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this research, which is being conducted across three research objective focuses, including greenhouse gases and air quality, water quality and quantity and soil contamination and bioremediation.

TSUAg Associate Professor Dr. Li is heading up one of the two projects associated with air quality, a study of the importance of soil organic matter for carbon sequestration. The work will involve comparing composite samples of soils and plants under control, heated, fertilized and heated plus fertilized plots of both switchgrass and gammagrass croplands. Byl will be leading one of the water quality projects on the prediction, reporting of and impacts of harmful algae blooms. The work dovetails nicely with Byl’s continuing work in the Tiger Bay Wetland studying the algae and other invasive species. The research will lead to better reporting of harmful algae blooms and will be conducted in conjunction with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.

A pair of TSUAg research faculty are managing sub-projects focusing on soil contamination and remediation, Drs. Reginald Archer and Sudipta Rakshit.

Dr. Archer will focus on geospatial analysis as part of bioremediation in municipal areas that have experienced a history of environmental injustice.

Vetiver grass will be studied as a remediation tool at the TSU Agriculture Research and Education Center on campus. Dr. Rakshit’s efforts will be centered on chemicals of emerging concerns, a group of contaminants affecting Tennessee soils.

The environmental protection and equity thrust area is currently supporting nine students working on undergraduate and graduate research theses, along with three interns. The work has led to the creation of two new college courses, including the Energy and Natural Resources course at TSUAg.

Workforce Training and Development Interspersed in each of the first three thrust areas is the fourth, which focuses on workplace training and development.

As each of the research-focused thrust areas utilizes student researchers, workforce development is built into the program. That said, the workforce training component of the Center of Excellence program has its own focal objectives including global engagement, environmental justice, outreach and training.

The COE-NREE will feature a partnership with the Council of

American Overseas Research Centers that will spawn a faculty development seminar focused on climate change.

Additionally, the Centers of Excellence program now houses the TSU-based Environmental Justice Academy, an 1890 university student organization funded by the U.S. Forest Service.

Finally, the program will instigate a partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, through which the organization will continue to place a faculty member on campus at TSU, involve program students through seminars and student internships and develop two professional water monitoring stations at the Tiger Bay Wetland to foment student experiential learning.

One year into the Center of Excellence program, TSUAg researchers are largely still producing data. The end product of the collaborative research will be recommendations designed to push the sustainable use of natural resources, vet potential sources of renewable energy and guide agricultural production practices with an eye on reducing our collective carbon footprint. As it matures into year three and beyond, so do the College’s contributions to the field of climate science and the placement of TSU on the front lines in the fight against global climate change.

The Centers of Excellence program is supporting the Dr. Matthew Blair-led project to investigate the seed yield and biomass vigor of grain amaranths. The project supports researchers, students and members of the farming community. Pictured are (from left) post-doctorate research associate Dr. Hui Li, Ph.D. student Max Miller, local amaranth farmer James Valencia of Radical Shoots LLC, and master’s students Lahari Nekkalapudi and Josh Relyea.

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Members of the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture Advisory Board convened their semi-annual board meeting in September. TSU President Dr. Glenda Glover (in green), Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Robbie Melton (in blue) and TSUAg Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy hosted the board for the meeting.

TSUAg Advisory Board Meets Restructuring a hot topic at semi-annual TSUAg Advisory Board meeting

By Charlie Morrison

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he Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) welcomed members of its Advisory Board in September, for their semi-annual board meeting.

Advisory Board members Ted Daniels, Hubert Hamer, Charlie Hatcher, T.J. Jamerson, Pete Nelson, Julie Poquette, Lauren Thomas Quigley, Jules Smith and Terri Sneed attended the meeting, held September 6 at the College of Agriculture’s Agriculture Information Technology Center building on campus.

Congratulated Dr. Reddy on being the recipient of the AgInnovation: Science that Feeds the World Award.

Advisory Board Chair Julie Poquette opened the meeting by introducing TSU Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Robbie Melton, who extended greetings on behalf of President Gloria Glover. Melton

Academic Overview and Mission Moment

The Board’s focus remained on academics at the College. The group discussed the new master’s degree offering in Agribusiness Leadership, the restructuring of the College’s degree offerings, the Dean’s Scholars Program, the Summer Internship Program and general scholarships.

Dr. De’Etra Young, Associate Dean of Academics and Land-Grant Programs addressed the group next, presenting

The college awarded 65 scholarships totaling $600,000 this year, reported the Board. In the coming year, an

After commenting on how valuable the College of Agriculture is to the University Melton expressed support for the College’s restructuring plans that will see it go from having two degree programs to five, stating that the reorganization will help to bring more students, support, and impact to the College of Agriculture.

an academic summary and a mission moment. Stated that this is the third week of classes, faculty are busy doing alerts for students who may not be in class or need extra help. These processes ensure that students have improved levels of success, reported Young.

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Toyota is participating in a pilot program. Continuing with the topic of research, Dr. Fulya Baysal-Gurel presented an overview of research outputs and grant highlights, before introducing Dr. Matthew Blair, who discussed his amaranth program, the benefits of amaranth as a grain crop, current research results and future plans.

Challenges and Opportunities

TSUAg Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy next addressed the body, giving an overview of where the school stands with respect to fellow 1890 universities. Among 1890 universities, TSU Agriculture is second in number of students, first in research and first in Extension. The agriculture faculty produces a majority of the research proposals at the university.

The Dean of the TSU College of Agriculture, Dr. Chandra Reddy, updated the Advisory Board on some of the progress made at the College at their last meeting in September.

increased emphasis on retention programs and getting students involved in organizations, such as Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences, Tiger Women in Agriculture and History Black College and University Outside will be introduced, the Board continued.

advice and guidance provided by the Board. She praised the experiential learning offered to the students in agriculture, and that agriculture is an important component in everyone’s life.

The college’s strategic goals were then outlined: Workforce development, global food security, environmental sustainability, and nutritional security before the topic turned to restructuring.

Dr. Reddy outlined the new structure that, beginning next semester, there will be five departments: Agricultural Science and Engineering, Environmental Science, Food and Animal Sciences, Agricultural Business and Education and Human Sciences. The five programs are at various stages of build-out with the four new programs’ undergraduate and Ph.D. programs to be established later, reported Dr. Reddy.

Following Dr. Reddy’s comments, the Board took a break before returning to discuss some introspective topics Extension and Research about the Board’s mission, metrics and The Board heard a pair of presentations organization. The body reaffirmed both its mission and purpose before defining A pair of students next addressed the on research going on at the College. the metrics it would use going forward group, CheKenna Fletcher and Grace First, Dr. Latif Lighari, Associate Dean to determine the success of Board Colvin. Fletcher, a Ph.D. student and of Extension introduced Dr. Emmanual B.S. graduate, discussed her experiences Omondi. Dr. Omondi outlined the hemp actions. The group identified 11 metrics of success going forward for three at TSU and how the support she received program at TSU and why it still makes distinct audiences, the undergraduate here made her successful. Second-year sense to do hemp research. student body, the graduate students and Food and Animal Sciences student the faculty. Finally, the Board established Grace Colvin spoke next, emphasizing The Board’s Charlie Hatcher asked a pair of subcommittees to address the family aspect of how TSU felt and what Dr. Omondi thought the future of the topics of student engagement and describing the support she received hemp was in Tennessee. Dr. Omondi support and faculty research/outreach from the College. responded that more producers partnerships. will begin to participate, efforts are The group at this point got a visit from underway to get auto companies The TSU College of Agriculture Advisory TSU President Dr. Gloria Glover. Dr. Volkswagen and Mercedes to use Board will meet again in the spring.

Glover voiced her appreciation for the Tennessee hemp products, and that

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The TSU College of Agriculture played host to hundreds of small farmers for the 19th annual Small Farm Expo, held on September 7 at the TSU Ag Research & Education Center on campus. Photo by TSU Media Relations.

19TH ANNUAL SMALL FARM EXPO TSU Continues to Revolutionize Farming with 19th Annual Expo | By Alexis Clark

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or nearly two decades, Tennessee State University has provided vital resources to the State’s small farmers. One of the major resources is the TSU Small Farm Expo. The event is dedicated to supporting small-scale farming, along with providing sustainable practices and agricultural education.

Dr. Chandra Reddy, the Dean of the College of Agriculture expressed the university’s commitment to the event.

“This is the very purpose of why we exist,” Dr. Reddy said. “As a land-grant institution, we want to support the producers.” The event drew over 250 attendees, including more than 60 university students, and featured workshops, engagement speakers and farmers.

Finis Stribling, III chaired this year’s Small Farm Expo and noted that one of those small farmers is Danielle Buyton.

Buyton was recognized as the 2023 TSU New Small Farmer

of the Year and received $3,000 to support her farming efforts.

“We started this expo about 19 years ago to showcase what TSU is doing in relation to small farms,” Stribling said.

Aria McElroy, a senior agricultural science major with a concentration in environmental science, was among the dozens of students who attended the expo.

“After I graduate in May, I would love to work with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and get a strong foundation of what conservation is like and how I can bring that to private and public land.”

McElroy, an 1890 Farm Bill scholar, also highlighted the significance of seeing Black farmers and landowners.

“It’s really good for TSU to have this event. Just seeing Black farm and landowners in this space is great.”

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behind. It’s going to make a difference in the interests of people.”

Reggie Marshall is a small farmer working to have an impact and credits TSU for his success. Marshall is also one of the first graduates of the TSU New Farmer Academy, established in 2014.

As he walked and greeted others at the Expo he reflected on the important work the TSU College of Agriculture is doing for small farmers across the state.

“In order to make these small farms viable, we need programs like the New Farmers Academy because it walks you through every phase of getting started,” he explained.

The Expo featured speakers from local, state and federal levels, and provided workshops on topics such as urban agriculture, hemp research, organic agriculture, vertical gardening, beekeeping, food demonstrations, food crop production and more.

TSU student, Sydney Wyche, a sophomore from Huntsville, echoed McElroy’s sentiments regarding how beneficial the event was. Wyche attended the Expo to learn more about the agricultural companies and opportunities available.

Tennessee State University Director of New Farmer Academy and the Small Farms Expo, Finis Stribling III. Photo by TSU Media Relations.

In addition to chairing the Expo, Stribling is the director of the Academy. He is also a third-generation farmer and established the Academy to support beginner small farmers across the country. Stribling noted how the New Farmer Academy graduates play a pivotal role in expanding the small farming community to sustain production in our ecosystem.

“I am looking for internships and trying to find new connections,” Wyche said.

“I wanted to learn more about the agricultural companies.

From the medicine you take to what you eat, agriculture is connected to everything.”

In addition to being a resource, the Expo serves as a platform to bring small farmers together and as well as extension agencies from across the state.

“We are here to showcase research relevant to small farms across Tennessee,” he said.

Stribling added that Buyton is also a graduate of the TSU New Farmer Academy, the only academy of its kind in the state that has graduated over 530 farmers from across the country.

Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher was one of several state officials who attended the Expo and praised the New Farmer Academy, reaffirming the importance of supporting small-scale farming and sustainable agriculture practices.

“It’s one of the best training programs for new farmers and beginning farmers in the United States. It’s been so impactful,” Hatcher said.

“It’s one of the most worthwhile programs we need to get

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During the Small Farmer recognition program, Danielle Buyton, was announced as the 2023 TSU New Small Farmer of the year and received $3,000 in total to support her farming efforts.

summer stars

TSUAg Students Shine in Summer Internships | By Charlie Morrison So much for taking the summer off. In October, students, faculty members and representatives of the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) administration assembled for the fall 2023 Student Showcase, highlighting the experiences of undergraduate students’ summer internship programs, and in short, this past summer was a productive one for students at the College. A total of 21 TSUAg undergrads presented their summer internship experiences throughout the country at the Showcase, held Oct. 20 at the Agriculture Information Technology Center on campus.

event, during which each student took five minutes to outline their experiences.

“We’re going to hear about some of the incredible work being done by our students,” said Associate Dean of Academics and Land-grant Programs and Associate Professor Dr. De’Etra Young about the event, before shifting her commentary to the students themselves. “I think it’s important not only for our faculty and others to see the work that you’re doing, but also for your classmates and peers to see what you’ve done in your internships.”

Senior and Agriculture Science major Kerrington Howard kicked off the event by presenting his ecologyrelated internship experience at the Waste Management corporation. His was one of a number of experiences At the event, students who’d participated focused on agriculture-related research. in summer internships each took These included students Lauryn Jones their turn at the podium to present and Janae Terrell who outlined their their experiences, which ranged from respective experiences working in agriculture-focused research projects, to genomics, Avion Brown and Sydney study abroad experiences, to corporate- Wyche, who studied forest ecology in based non-agriculture projects. The respective projects and Genoa James and diversity of students’ interests and Hunter Cruse, who partnered up on an avenues of study were on display at the internship experience studying floral

Winter 2023 | AgLINK 29

TSUAg undergrad Blake Crawford takes a question from the audience during his presentation on his summer internship at Milhouse Engineering and Construction.

hemp production.

Other internships allowed students to examine social issues related to agriculture, such as Aaliyah Cotton’s summer internship project titled, “Bridging the Nature Gap: Black Youth and Access to Natural Sciences.” Kamryn Poole, Kyla Hughes and Dacia Ringo presented their experiences addressing food insecurity as an issue in their presentations on their summer study abroad experiences in Senegal.

tap water containing peroxyacetic acid.

Blake Crawford went in a different direction, presenting to the group the time he spent over the summer as an intern for the engineering firm Milhouse Engineering and Construction. Blake Wright too, went his own way, outlining his experience developing healthcare skills, planning academic journeys and getting clinical exposure and networking experience while interning as part of the Summer Health Professions Education Program.

Supplements and Infant Formula,” and Emery Minor discussed her project focused on the evaluation of municipal

great opportunities you all found this summer,” said Dr. Reddy. “It’s music to my ears to see how much you all learned

in a few months, wherever you went.

Most of you have learned a lot, and not just in the science part of it but the communications aspect, interacting with other people, traveling, getting out there… You are leaders.”

“It’s music to my ears to see how much you Still other projects were technical in TSUAg Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy all learned in a nature. Trinidee Thomas presented her brought the event home with some work over the summer on a project titled comments in summation of the event “Data Management for Signal Detection and the interns’ experiences. “I really few months.” with Foods, Cosmetics, Dietary enjoyed hearing all the good stories and

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- Dr. Chandra Reddy

In a Class of Their Own I

Ninth TSU Extension New Farmer Academy Class Graduates Over 100 | By Charlie Morrison

n September, the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture’s (TSUAg) Extension program wrapped up the ninth season of its signature New Farmers Academy series, and judging by the fact the program graduated a whopping 128 participants, it’s never been more popular. The large graduating class in 2023 brings the total number of participants to well over 600 in the series’ nine-year history, a fact that puts a smile on the face of Director Finis Stribling, III. “We’ve seen our graduates have a lot of success, buying farms, creating online businesses, several have won the New Farmer of the Year Award at the Small Farm Expo… A lot of them have done amazing things from an agricultural business perspective,” says Stribling.

“To have a program to see farmers thrive is amazing.” The New Farmer Academy is a seven-month certificate program that takes place in three county Extension offices across the state each summer. The series addresses a wide range of topics new farmers have to confront when they get started including farm business, marketing, business management, grantsmanship

and of course agricultural production practices such as soil health, livestock production, fruit and vegetable production, irrigation, even beekeeping.

Stribling ran the first edition of the series back in 2014 and for that initial run of the program, only nine signed up. This year, TSU Extension Agent Jo Anne Waterman ran the Extension’s Memphis-based western Tennessee New Farmer Academy, graduating 40 participants. Morgan County Extension Agent Jennie Goodrich ran this year’s program in east Tennessee where she graduated 27 and Montgomery County Agent Karla Gargus ran the largest program this year, graduating 51 new farmers in middle Tennessee. For Stribling, one of the keys to the event’s success over the years is the fact that TSU remains flexible in its programming at each series each year.

people with a lot of livestock our focus may be more heavily on the livestock but still, you need to know about your soils, you need to know about your plants, so we talk about some of the basics too.”

Regulation, taxation, loans, finding buyers, the questions facing the new farmer are many, but as part of their role administering the program Stribling and TSU Extension Agents remain available to New Farmers Academy grads even after the series.

Resources provided to attendees of the program remain available to graduates into the future, and that makes a big difference according to Stribling because many get into agriculture with the misconception that it’s simple.

Registration for the 2024 New Farmers Academy series is open. A total of seven workshop days are scheduled beginning in March and running through September, with lectures, presentations and discussions taking place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

Registration costs $200.

“One of the things we really try to do is right after registration say to the attendees, ‘What are your interests?’ And we try to plan the coursework around the interests of the For more information, see our website at participants,” says Stribling. “If we have https://www.tnstate.edu/extension

The Morgan County New Farmer’s Academy Attendees of UT-TSU Morgan County Extension’s seven-month east Tennessee New Farmer Academy series sit in on a presentation on farm management and goal setting. The series came to a close in September, with Morgan County graduating a class of 27.

Winter 2023 | AgLINK 31

Summer Apprenticeship Program students took part in research projects being conducted at TSU’s Otis Floyd Nursery Research Center in McMinnville as part of their apprenticeship experience this past summer.

finding our future farmers Summer Apprenticeship Program Grooms 27th Consecutive Class for Potential Farming Future | By Dr. De’Etra Young

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he summer of 2023 was another summer of experiential learning for high school students at Tennessee State University’s College of Agriculture (TSUAg), as the Summer Apprenticeship Program (SAP) at the school successfully concluded its 2023 session. The dynamic blend of education and hands-on experience wrapped up for the 27th consecutive year this summer, making it one of the longest continually-running extracurricular programs at TSU. Established in 1996, the SAP program aims to kindle interest in the food, agricultural, natural resources and human sciences careers, providing a positive avenue for youth to immerse themselves in an experiential learning

32 AgLINK | Winter 2023

environment. Students are typically rising juniors or seniors, however some students participate in the program after their graduation as incoming college freshmen.

Throughout July, a cohort of talented students participated in research projects and professional development opportunities while living on the TSU campus. A total of 23 high schoolers participated in the 2023 summer apprenticeship program.

The program’s activities extended beyond the classroom, with students embarking on enlightening field trips to Mammoth Cave National Park and the TSU Otis L. Floyd Nursery Research Center in McMinnville.

The diverse range of experiences offered by the Summer Apprenticeship Program aligns with its mission to equip high school students with basic and advanced technologies essential for careers in agricultural sciences on local, state, national and global levels.

Dr. Alyssa Rockers, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Media & Communications at the College, worked with a pair of summer apprentices, Gianna Stephens and Morgan Alford. Both of the students were incoming freshman at TSU and conducted social science research as incoming mass communication majors.

“It was really great to help them experience research, even as students who hadn’t yet started college and give them experience into what social science research can look like,” says Dr. Rockers. Helping students gain that understanding and broadening their understanding of research was really rewarding for me, and it also served as a recruitment tool for us.”

Alford stuck with mass communications while Stephens changed to Agricultural Leadership Education and Communication upon joining TSU. In the case of Stephens, now a Dean’s Scholar at the TSUAg, the apprenticeship program prepared her for her college studies an a unique way. “If she hadn’t had the foundation of research understanding in the summer apprenticeship, we would been able to get off and going as quick as we were. I didn’t have to establish a base level of understanding of some things because she’d already learned it from me over the summer.”

The success of the SAP not only enriches these students’ educational experiences but also contributes to building a network that promotes TSU as a destination for the higher education of promising students. As these young minds returned to their academic pursuits this fall, the impact of their summer endeavors will have on their future in the agricultural, environmental and human sciences.

High school students who participated in this year’s Summer Apprenticeship Program at TSUAg took a field trip this summer to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.

2023 program participants: • Anna Qian • Kamola Agzamoua • Christopher McKay • Joshua Myers • Cortez Rucker • Jordan Wakefield • Paul Griffith • Jai’Da Seafous • Miles Minor • Cadence Hardison • Gianna Stephens • Morgan Alford • LaNecia Matthews • Taurie Grant • Isiah Woodard • Zion Hogan • Du Juan Sharp • Tsira Calhoun • Jonna-Richie Ingram • Cori Smith • Madison McNeal • Erin Gardner • Izabella Douglass

TSU College of Agriculture freshman and Agricultural Leadership Education and Communication major Gianna Stephens worked with Dr. Alyssa Rockers this summer as a summer apprentice.

Winter 2023 | AgLINK 33

For the second-consecutive year TSU’s Dr. John Ricketts collaborated with Virginia Tech’s Dr. Rick Rudd in bringing students to Senegal to present an educational program on food security. This year, students presented a program on best practices related to canning both tomatos and mangos.

leading A horse to water Ricketts Leads Group to Senegal for Food Preservation-focused Adventure | By Charlie Morrison

O

their hands dirty they did. TSU undergrads Kyla Hughes, Dacia Ringo, Jayla Washington and Kamryn Poole took the trip across the Atlantic this past summer for a food safety program built around increasing knowledge of food preservation and correct canning practices in villages in Senegal.

In that vein, four College of Agriculture undergrads joined Dr. John Ricketts for what was the school’s second consecutive summer study abroad trip to Senegal, and get

“We’re basically using food safety and food preservation to attract students to the careers of Extension education,” says Dr. Ricketts. “We’ve had students from all kinds of majors that, once they go and teach the women of the villages about food preservation and food safety, get turned on to the idea of a career in Extension education.

ne of the tricks of the trade when it comes to recruiting and keeping students at the Tennessee State University’s College of Agriculture (TSUAg) is to help them get their hands dirty, literally. There is just something about doing the work of agriculture and agriculture education in the field that sticks with students, and when the field is a village in Senegal, it’s all the more effective at creating lasting bonds with the industry.

34 AgLINK | Winter 2023

The context is canning mangoes and tomatoes but the point is to pull students into Extension education.”

“It is good to have knowledge in agriculture, human sciences and food science but the skills that we’re trying to teach most of all are the teaching skills,” continues Dr. TSUAg partnered with both Virginia Tech University and Ricketts. “Planning a curriculum, the different teaching Bambey University in Senegal in creating this series. The methods, evaluation, working with adults, working with two American schools were able to fund the trip through different populations, audience analysis, motivating the procurement of a U.S. Department of Agriculture AFRI learners… all those different skills.”

Research and Extension Experience for Undergraduates grant. The grant project is titled “Illuminating Agricultural The process of learning a curriculum and taking it to Extension and Education Career Opportunities for STEM the field for implementation is an important one for and Liberal Arts Undergraduate Students.” Virginia Tech the students, says Dr. Ricketts. It’s the actual passage of professor Drs. Rick Rudd and Ricketts serve as the coinformation from student teachers to the end users of the principal investigators for the program. knowledge in Senegal that makes the biggest impact on the TSU undergrads, he asserts.

Before heading over to Africa with their teaching program, the students perfected their craft here in a learning session “Most of our students get into it because they get a chance in Blacksburg, Virginia at Virginia Tech. In Blacksburg, to go to Africa,” he says. “But most of them also leave with students received training in food safety and the actual this idea that, ‘Hey, I want to do some development work, canning process for both tomatoes and mango sauce.

I want to work internationally or with these different Upon mastering the teaching program stateside, the populations.’ And that’s exactly why we do it. It’s pretty students were then ready to take the program to Senegal impactful.” where they had to navigate other hurdles such as the language barrier in delivering the programming.

The Senegal program will continue next year and beyond but in a different guise. Funding for the trip will begin Students did get some training in both French and the coming from the College’s recently-acquired $18 million native Wolof language while at Virginia Tech, but once in United States Department of Agriculture National Institute Senegal they could lean on University of Bambey educator of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) NextGen grant next Dr. Ousman Kane. Kane, for the second consecutive year, year. In addition, the focus of the trip will change from managed the project from the Senegal side, bringing the the country to the city, from food preservation with the groups to locations where they could have an impact and women in the villages to working with a farm school in the overseeing the interactions between the Virginia Tech and middle of Dakar.

TSU undergrads and local residents.

TSUAg undergrads (from left) Kyla Hughes, Jayla Washington and Dacia Ringo joined Dr. Ricketts this summer for a trip to senegal.

Winter 2023 | AgLINK 35

THE BEST OF US Students, Faculty Take Home TSUAg Awards at Annual Luncheon | By Charlie Morrison

Tennessee State University’s College of Agriculture (TSUAg), this past April, took a step back from day-to-day activities for an afternoon of awards, recognitions and honors at the College’s 2022-2023 Awards Luncheon. A number of faculty members and students were honored for their contributions to the University at the luncheon, which took place on April 6 at the Farrell-Westbrook Auditorium on campus.

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36 AgLINK | Winter 2023

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Dr. Pokharel took the mic to present the awards for Outstanding Graduate Students and Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor. Madhav Parajuli took home the prize for Outstanding Doctoral Student. His research goals Ma dh are centered on developing integrated a management recommendations for soilborne and foliar diseases and pest insects such as ambrosia beetles and flat-headed borers in field nursery crops. As a graduate student, Parajuli has presented at least 20 oral/poster presentations at local, national and international conferences, winning a number of awards along the way. Parajuli works under

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TSUAg Associate Dean of Extension Dr. Lighari took to the microphone next to present the Outstanding Extension Agent

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Dr. Gawal and Trice stepped up first, presenting College of Agriculture Postdoc Research Assistant Dr. Hui Li with the Outstanding Technical Support Award. Li was recognized for not only her research contributions but also for the financial and personnel management of her lab, in which she performs molecular biology and biotechnology research.

Professor of Agronomy and Soil Science and Extension Program Leader for Agriculture and Natural Resources Dr. Jason de Koff was presented the award for Outstanding Extension Faculty. de Koff is no stranger to winning awards, as over the last five years, he has received over 20 so n awards at the local, state and national De Ko f f levels. During his work at TSU, de Koff has engaged in research and Extension activities related to bioenergy crop production, soil health and drone technology.

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Following an introduction to the event by Dr. Robbie Melton, TSU Interim Provost and Acting Vice President for Academic Affairs, attendees were treated to a meditation, lunch and music before diving into the awards portion of the event.

Presenting the awards were faculty members on the Awards Committee, including Dr. Nick Gawal, Jerome Trice, Dr. Latif Lighari, Dr. Bharat Pokharel, Dr. De’Etra Young and Dr. Fulya BaysalH ui Li Gurel.

and Outstanding Extension Faculty Awards. Marion County Extension Agent Elizabeth Lowrey was named the Outstanding Extension Agent for 2022-2023. Lowery’s responsibilities include 4-H Youth Development, where she focuses on agricultural judging teams and shooting sports, along with community economic development.

Dr. Fulya Baysal-Gurel in the Otis L. Floyd Nursery Research Center Plant Pathology Lab.

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Dr. De’Etra Young presented the awards for Outstanding Undergraduate Student and Outstanding Teaching Faculty. Dacia Ringo took home the award for Outstanding Undergraduate Student. An agricultural science major with a concentration in biotechnology from Atlanta, Georgia, Ringo is currently the President of Tiger Women in Agriculture and the Vice President of Minorities in Agriculture, Nature Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS), not to mention a Dean’s Scholar, conducting research in a food microbiology lab. She has maintained o ng Ri ia her 4.0 grade point average while making D ac the President’s List each year she’s been eligible.

A pair of TSU Associate Professors shared the 2022-2023 award for Outstanding Researcher Faculty, Dr. Jianwei Li and Dr. Yongming Sang.

Dr. Li is an Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Since July 2014, Dr. Li has built an interdisciplinary research program in climate change and Ji an we soil biogeochemistry. The program i Li promoted climate change research, science education and leadership development toward Dr. minority students. In the past three years, Yo n his research program has acquired extramural funding of $1,488,799 and $985,946 worth of projects as the principal investigator from USDA, NSF, and DOE.

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It was Dr. Baysal-Gurel, Research Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and Associate Dean for Research who was named the 2022-2023 Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor. Under her mentorship, her students have been very productive, publishing scores of peer-reviewed articles in a variety of industry publications attending national, regional and in-state meetings, symposiums and conferences, and ul ya Ba winning numerous scholarships, ysa l- G u rel honorariums and awards.

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au Asmita Gautam won the award for Outstanding Master’s Student in Environmental Sciences.

Now pursuing a master’s in Environmental Science in the chemical ecology lab at Tennessee State University’s Otis Floyd Nursery Research Center in McMinnville, TN under the guidance of Dr. Karla Addesso, Gautam’s research work focuses on wood-boring buprestid beetle management, with a particular emphasis on the challenges posed by borers in maple nursery trees in middle Tennessee.

Dr. Baysal-Gurel returned to the stage Dr for the afternoon’s final award presentations, first introducing TSU Assistant Professor Dr. Sonali Roy as the winner of the Outstanding Young Researcher Award. Dr. Roy’s research focuses on the regulation of nitrogen acquisition in legumes.

She has authored several high-impact publications and has been invited to speak at several prestigious conferences and seminars worldwide, including as a keynote speaker at the International Society of Plant Microbe Interactions eSymposium, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center scientific retreat and the 10th International Conference on Legume Genomics and Genetics.

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The Outstanding Master’s Student for Food and Animal Sciences is Tobenna Aniume. His research focused on using bio-control agents as a mitigator against soil-borne pathogens and water stress on tomato crops. He joined the TSU College of Agriculture in the spring of 2021 to pursue his passion for food safety. Aniume works in the Food Safety and Microbiology Laboratory under advisor Dr. Agnes Kilonzo-Nthenge.

Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Dr. Prabodh Illukpitiya brought home the Outstanding Teaching Faculty Award. The 2022-2023 award was the second for Illukpitiya, having won the same honor in 2018. He plays an active role in undergraduate education and has taught all levels of undergraduate classes for the past decade.

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Animal Genomics and Health Professor Dr. Yongming Sang directs his research at elucidating, molecularly and functionally, animal immune and metabolic genes, in particular those that have antimicrobial activities and therapeutic potential.

Dr. Sang and his team are using combined approaches of bioinformatics, genetics and molecular biology to elucidate genes or gene families that are potentially important in animal health. Dr. Sang also serves as the Focus Group Leader of Animal Sciences.

Winter 2023 | AgLINK 37

Tennessee State University College of Agriculture 3500 John A. Merritt Blvd.

Nashville, TN 37209 Stay Connected! @tsucollegeofagriculture @tsucollegeofag @tsucollegeofagriculture TSU College of Agriculture Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (615) 963-7561 www.tnstate.edu/agriculture

TSU-23-033(B)-15c-81321 - Tennessee State University does not discriminate against students, employees, or applicants for admission or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, age, status as a protected veteran, genetic information, or any other legally protected class with respect to all employment, programs and activities sponsored by Tennessee State University. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies: Office of Equity and Inclusion, 3500 John Merritt Blvd., General Services Building, Second Floor, Nashville, TN 37209, 615-963-7435. The Tennessee State University policy on nondiscrimination can be found at www.tnstate.edu/nondiscrimination.