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The spring semester is always a busy time on a college campus! Over the past month I have attended the following events, meetings and gatherings, from Columbia, Mo., to the District of Columbia!: - Lunch with Don Nikodim, Executive Director, Missouri Pork Association
- MASBDA Grant Information Session as presented to the Food Entrepreneur Network
- Meeting with MU Engagement and Extension
- Cheering on the Mizzou Tigers basketball team with CAFNR donors and friends
- “Stepping into 2023” event, hosted by our own CAFNR Staff Advisory Council
- Meeting with the Food, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences Division Director search committee
- Visit with the Alpha Gamma Rho advisor, Ben Brown
- MU/FFA Partnership meeting
- APLU CARET meetings in Washington, D.C., and visits to our representatives on Capitol Hill
- Institute of Food Technologists spring board meeting
- CAFNR Policy Committee meeting
- CAFNR spring events planning meeting
- STEM deans meeting
We were thrilled to announce the establishment of our new Institute of Fisheries, Wetlands and Aquatic Systems, at an event at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, March 6, thanks to a $1.7 million gift from an endowment established by the Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation (MCHF). The Institute is a partnership between CAFNR, MCHF and the Missouri Department of Conservation. The institute will support cultivating conservation professionals through workforce development, research and public policy. The endowment will help hire an institute director and two assistant professors. This is a really unique private-public partnership, and we thank our partners for this opportunity! Still to come this month, I will attend the Missouri Innovation Center Board special committee meeting; see a sneak peek of the design for the new CAFNR website; visit with Provost Ramchand; attend Michael Kateman’s retirement reception (we appreciate his work with CAFNR Advancement!); visit with Dr. Steward Pickett, ecologist and distinguished senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and our spring CAFNR Executive-in-Residence, who will be on campus March 20-23; travel to Mount Vernon for the Southwest Research, Extension and Education Center advisory board meeting; visit Kansas City for the March KC Agribusiness Council’s board meeting and lunch with invited speaker Pat Westhoff, director of FAPRI; attend the Mizzou Collegiate Farm Bureau Forum with Garrett Hawkins, Farm Bureau President, and Ryan Nonnemaker, district director for U.S. Rep. Mark Alford; attend the Council of Deans meeting; visit with CAFNR and MU Extension representatives to plan for the Missouri State Fair; and celebrate Ag Day tomorrow! This afternoon CAFNR is hosting a webinar about MASBDA’s new grant opportunity for value-added agriculture, Show-Me Entrepreneurial Grants for Agriculture (SEGA). Please join host Mallory Rahe, associate extension professor, MASBDA representatives and me to learn more about the grant program and the potential for collaborative projects. This grant program was developed to address recommendations of the Missouri Food, Beverage, and Forest Products Manufacturing Task Force and is related to our CAFNR Grand Idea. Grant applications must be submitted to MASBDA by 5 p.m. Friday, April 28. Grant program application forms and evaluation criteria are available online at www.masbda.com. The webinar will be from 2:45-3:30 p.m., and will be accessible via Zoom. In addition, please plan to join me for Staff Advisory Council’s “Work, Well-Being and Mental Health” seminar tomorrow from 3 to 4 p.m. in Eckles 113, presented by Employee Assistance Program Director Dr. James Hunter. I am saddened to share with you that we lost Jake Fisher, the namesake of our T.E. “Jake” Fisher Delta Research, Extension and Education Center (Portageville), on March 1. I was honored to attend his memorial service and be among his family, friends and colleagues to celebrate Jake. I hope you will all take time to read more about his incredible life and legacy. He will be so very missed, and I hope you will join me in thinking of his loved ones at this time. CAFNR Proud, Christopher R. Daubert, Ph.D.
CAFNR Vice Chancellor & Dean |
