UACES Facebook New Faculty at the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
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Meet Our New Faculty

Here's a glance at employees who have recently joined the Division of Agriculture. Some of them are new to the Division of Agriculture, others of them have moved into other positions within the Division of Agriculture.

New Faculty by Department

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Tom Barber

Tom Barber has been named interim assistant vice president for agriculture and natural resources for the Cooperative Extension Service, starting February 2024. 

Barber, an extension weed scientist and director of the Jackson County Extension Center, will step into the role on Feb. 26. The position came open with the retirement of Vic Ford at the end of January. The extension service, the land-grant outreach arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, will conduct a nationwide search for a new assistant vice president.

Barber earned his bachelor’s and master’s in weed science at the University of Arkansas and his doctorate in weed science at Mississippi State University.

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Michael Blazier

Michael Blazier is dean for the UAM College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources and Director of the Arkansas Forest Resources Center.

Blazier comes from Louisiana State University, where he has served for 18 years as a forestry project leader at the LSU AgCenter Hill Farm Research Station and professor.  He is experienced as a statewide forestry extension specialist and holds dozens of peer-reviewed publications. He holds a bachelor’s degree in forestry from Louisiana Tech University, as well as a master’s and Ph.D. in forestry fields from Oklahoma State University.

Blazier succeeded Phil Tappe as dean of the College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Carla Due

Carla Due

Carla Due currently serves as District Director for 25 Ouachita District counties in Southwest Arkansas. Her previous work experience in Arkansas includes serving 30 years in Miller County in various educational roles including:  4-H agent, Family and Consumer Sciences Agent and Staff Chair and Family & Consumer Science agent. She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and reared in Haskell, Oklahoma. 

She succeeds Beth Phelps, who retired.

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Evan Jewsbury

For Evan Jewsbury, his new job as chief human resources officer for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture is something of a homecoming.

Jewsbury joined the Division of Agriculture on May 20 and will be based in Fayetteville. He comes to the Division of Agriculture from Tulsa Community College, where he served as the chief human resources officer.

“I grew up just over an hour north of Fayetteville,” Jewsbury said. “Early in my HR career, I worked in Gravette, Arkansas, so it's nice to return to the state again.”

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Nga Mahfouz

Nga Mahfouz is bringing more than 25 years of public and private sector experience as she joins the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture as its general counsel.

Mahfouz, of Hot Springs, earned her juris doctorate at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law after earning a B.S. in accounting from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.

Before joining the division, Mahfouz served in the Arkansas attorney general’s office as senior assistant attorney general for the agencies division and assistant attorney general for the civil litigation division. Some of her work with the attorney general’s office was with two-year colleges.

Her private sector experience includes serving as a chief legal officer for RP Holdings Group and as an associate with Provost Umphrey. Mahfouz also served as staff attorney for the City of Bryant and staff litigator for the Arkansas Municipal League.

Portrait of Debbie Nistler, with blonde curly hair, dark jacket, red blouse

Debbie Nistler

Debbie Nistler, extension’s new assistant vice president of 4-H and youth development for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, is a 4-H alumna and proud member of a “4-H family.”

Nistler, who starts on Mayl1, said she is looking forward to connecting with Arkansas 4-H professionals across the state.

“Our 4-H professionals are the lifeblood of the program,” she said. “I cannot wait to share in their enthusiasm. I also look forward to engaging in summer camps and activities and getting excited about the future of Arkansas 4-H.”

As a 4-H alumna, Nistler said she has seen firsthand how the program impacts youth and sets them on a path to success. She was a member from fourth grade through her senior year of high school in Yamhill, Oregon.

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Nina Roofe

Helping people live better has been at the heart of Nina Roofe’s career – as a longtime registered dietitian, as a professor and chair of the Department of Nutrition and Family Sciences at the University of Central Arkansas, and now in her new leadership role as assistant vice president of Family and Consumer Sciences for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

Roofe will ensure research-based programming is available to meet the needs of Arkansans in the areas of food and nutrition, food safety and preservation, health and exercise, personal finance, home safety, early childhood and mental health.

Roofe has a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics from the University of Central Arkansas; a Master of Science in Corporate Health Promotion from the University of Arkansas; and Ph.D in Family and Consumer Sciences Education from Iowa State University.

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Sherry Beaty-Sullivan

Longtime Cooperative Extension Service agent Sherry Beaty-Sullivan steps into a new role May 1, 2024, as the director of the Ozark District, where she will oversee extension staff and programs in 25 counties in the north-central and northwest areas of Arkansas.

Beaty-Sullivan is currently the staff chair for the Polk County extension office. She supervises staff and splits her time between maintaining agricultural programs in livestock, forages and horticulture, as well as community and economic development and 4-H programing in the community and in schools. She and her husband, Scott, own a 1,600-acre ranch with cattle, forages, timber and aggregate in south Polk County in Grannis, Arkansas.

Beaty-Sullivan’s father, Ron Beaty, started his extension career as a livestock agent — first in Craighead County and then in Pulaski County. Beaty-Sullivan grew up showing animals and was involved with Arkansas 4-H, extension’s youth leadership program. Her mother, Judy, was a 4-H volunteer leader. See the whole story.

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Jeff Weaver

 Jeff Weaver joined the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture as its director for government affairs and stakeholder engagement, a new position, Jan. 2, 2024.

Weaver handles in-state government affairs and coordinate fundraising from a base in Little Rock. Chuck Culver, assistant vice president and director of external relations, will continue working with Congress and development efforts.

A native of the Arkansas Delta, Weaver said he has a passion for rural development.

Andrew Anderson

Andrew Anderson 

 Weather. Markets. Global events. Farmers still have to produce the world’s food amid a world of uncontrollable factors.

“Any farmer will tell you that farming is a lot like gambling,” said Andrew Anderson, assistant professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “To be able to have policies that are created understanding that risky environment is really important.”

Anderson investigates the role of risk in decisions throughout the agricultural supply chain. He said he is hoping his research will improve policy-making decisions and help farmers and others develop strategies to manage risky environments.

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Hunter Biram 

Hunter D. Biram is an assistant professor, crop extension economist, and associate director of the Southern Risk Management Education Center. Biram grew up in Floral, Arkansas, working on a  family farm with a cow-calf herd, broiler chickens, a greenhouse nursery and a peach orchard. He earned his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Kansas State University in the 2022 where he gained an appreciation for crop insurance participation impacts on producer behavior and determinants of crop insurance premium rates.

Biram has a strong interest in crop insurance and commodity programs as a risk management strategy for crop producers, and his extension programming focuses on crop risk management using crop insurance. 

Lawson Connor

Lawson Connor 

 A shift in thinking about environmental sustainability on the farm as a long-term risk mitigation factor is taking place in agricultural economics. Lawson Connor, assistant professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness with the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas, is working to quantify the economic effects of sustainability practices such as cover crop programs and water conservation tactics. These results could then be translated into economic decision tools for farmers.

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Ryan Loy

When Ryan Loy first looked seriously at agriculture in high school, he saw an industry that was misunderstood. The Plano, Texas, native started in late June as an extension agricultural economist and assistant professor with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

“This is an industry that really needs somebody who's not from an ag background to come in and try to show the rest of the world that this is important,” Loy said.

Loy would earn his bachelor’s degree in agribusiness from Oklahoma State University and stayed on to earn both a master’s and Ph.D. in agricultural economics.

Brandon McFaddon portrait

Brandon McFaddon

Brandon McFadden is the new Tyson Endowed Chair in Food Policy Economics in the department of agricultural economics and agribusiness. His work as an agricultural economist focuses on consumer knowledge — and confusion — in emerging markets to estimate consumer demand and what consumers value in those emerging markets. His research provides information that can help farmers, processors and manufacturers.

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Jada Thompson

Jada Thompson, a northwest Arkansas native, is among a small group of agricultural economists who specialize in poultry. She has a long history with the University of Arkansas, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural economics there. For her bachelor’s degree, Thompson double-majored in poultry science and agricultural economics. She returned to Arkansas as an agricultural economics assistant professor following five years as an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

She earned her doctorate in 2016 at Colorado State University. 

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Jason Davis

Jason Davis , who completed his Ph.D. in 2022, is assistant professor of remote sensing and pesticide application extension specialist. The position reflects an increasing effort to formalize agent training in the use of drone and satellite imagery and analysis of the data it can provide.

Davis joined the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture as an extension pesticide application specialist in 2014, has been studying the use of remote sensing technologies since 2019, when he acquired a UAV pilot license. That same year, the Arkansas Plant Board granted the Division of Agriculture access to a drone for a three-year period, and Davis began incorporating it in a drift analysis project.

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Randy Forst

Randy Forst, who has served as a county extension agent for 13 years, has been hired as the consumer horticulture educator for extension, part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. In his new role, Forst will provide leadership for statewide horticulture programs and coordinate the Arkansas Master Gardeners program, the state’s largest horticulture volunteer and education organization. Forst began the new position Oct. 3.

Forst has a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Design and Urban Horticulture and a Master of Science in General Agriculture, both from the University of Arkansas. Before joining extension, he was a landscape architect in Tennessee.

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Jacob Hackman

Though he grew up in row crops, Jacob Hackman found his calling in forestry.

Hackman joined the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Sept. 1, as assistant professor of forest management and extension.

“There’s something about the woods, something about the people that work in forestry,” Hackman said. “When I started meeting foresters, I think the people more drew me in than the woods itself."

Portrait of Chad Norton with a red polo shirt

Chad Norton

With 30 years of experience under his belt, Chad Norton is ready to shepherd the next generation of agriculture extension agents in Arkansas. Norton, who worked as a county agent for 20 years and a verification coordinator for 10, stepped into his next role with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture as the agriculture and natural resources instructor for row crops.

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Samantha Robinson 

Behind the scenes of modern agricultural research are the statisticians who help make sense of the data and guide the design of the studies before they even start.

Samantha Robinson, an associate professor of statistics and data science with more than a decade of experience teaching and consulting in statistics, biostatistics and data science roles, recently joined the Center for Agricultural Data Analytics and the School of Human Environmental Sciences.

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Jaret Rushing

The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture has named Jaret Rushing, a 16-year veteran of the Division’s Cooperative Extension Service, as its first extension forestry instructor.

Rushing will provide forestry expertise and assistance for Arkansas forest landowners, county agents, forestry professionals and youth. Before this appointment, Rushing served as an extension agent for the Calhoun County Cooperative Extension Service office, most recently as staff chair.

He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in forestry from the University of Arkansas at Monticello. 

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Laura Sims

With Arkansas’ multibillion-dollar forestry industry to defend, forest health researcher Laura Sims has been named director of the recently announced Arkansas Forest Health Research Center based at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

Sims comes to UAM as an associate professor with more than 15 years of experience in botany and plant pathology research and teaching.

“I am thrilled that Arkansas understands the importance of trees and wants to help keep the state’s forests healthy,” said Sims.

Hannah Wright-Smith

Hannah Wright-Smith

Hannah Wright-Smith, new extension weed specialist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, will be keeping an eye on  brush control, forests, forages, turf, horticulture crops, industrial sites and right-of-way.

As part of her duties, Wright-Smith will also conduct research for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the Division of Agriculture.

Wright-Smith received her Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics with an emphasis in Agribusiness from Mississippi State University. She received her Master of Science in Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences, with an emphasis in Weed Science, from the University of Arkansas in 2020. She will receive her Ph.D. in Crop and Soil Sciences, with an emphasis in Weed Science, from the University of Georgia in December 2022. 

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Ashlyn Ussery

Ashlyn Ussery is the agriculture and natural resources educator at the Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center in Greenfield, Arkansas, where she is working to build an agriculture educational program for youth and adults in the delta region that will be focused predominantly on rice. With the NERREC building still under construction, Ashlyn is working with extension agents and community groups in the delta to not only learn how NERREC can best serve them, but also to begin building educational opportunities for the community now.

Ashlyn is originally from central Arkansas and received a bachelors in Agricultural Business from Southern Arkansas University in 2019. From there, she continued her education at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where she received a masters in agriculture extension education with an emphasis in communication and leadership.

This is a new position. 

Les Walz in front of a tree

Les Walz 

For Les Walz, his new position as Agriculture and Natural Resources Livestock and Forages Educator for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture is an opportunity to mentor county agents and teach them about these two major production systems and more.

Walz began his new role in May 2022 after working as a Cleveland County extension agent for more than 22 years. He said the most rewarding part of his career as an agent has been helping clients succeed.

This is a new position. 

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Marco Yáñez

 Marco Yáñez, assistant professor of silviculture and forest ecology for the University of Arkansas at Monticello, has a keen interest in climate effects.

Yáñez, who hails from Chile, joined the faculty on Aug. 1 and will begin teaching in January. He conducts research at UAM for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and teaches classes through the University of Arkansas at Monticello’s College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources. Together, the division and the college co-host the Arkansas Forest Resources Center.

He has a forest engineering degree from Chile's University of Talca and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech University. 

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Shane Gadberry

After 25 years as an extension livestock specialist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, Shane Gadberry has been appointed resident director of the research station near Batesville.

He succeeds Don Hubbell, who retired. 

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Aranyak Goswami

Jumping from human-focused medical research at Yale University and Stanford University, Aranyak Goswami is a bioinformatics specialist who recently became an assistant professor for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

He will work with three different departments to boost the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

“Artificial intelligence and machine learning are at the forefront of many aspects of animal and poultry production,” said Michael Looper, head of the animal science department. “Dr. Goswami’s expertise in these key areas complements our current research programs in animal health, genetics and well-being.”

As a computational biologist, Goswami said he wants to apply his experiences in human health research and machine learning to animal health.

“Whatever is exciting in the human field in general is more exciting for the animal field because the genomes are not standardized,” Goswami said. 

Portrait of Maggie Justice

Maggie Justice 

Maggie Justice joins the division as an assistant professor-beef cattle systems in beef cattle husbandry and integrated resource management.

Justice, a native of Springfield, South Carolina, earned her M.S. a Clemson and a Ph.D. at Auburn.

She will provide training and support to county extension agents and will also develop producer outreach programs with an eye to increasing on-farm efficiency and sustainability.

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Jonathan Kubesch

It began, as it sometimes does, with elephants.

Jonathan Kubesch, extension forage specialist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, spent a fair amount of his childhood working on his grandparents’ farm near Peru, Indiana. In addition to raising Angus

cattle and growing beans and corn, they also grew vast swaths of alfalfa.

“They’d sell alfalfa hay to circuses for elephants,” Kubesch said. “There’s a picture of me as a 4-year-old on an elephant somewhere.

“That’s a good way to get some skin in the game,” he said. “To learn what it takes to grow forages, what it takes to support a livestock operation.”

Kubesch joined the Cooperative Extension Service, the outreach and education arm of the Division of Agriculture, in late March. 2024. After completing his Ph.D. in crop and soil environmental science at Virginia Tech, he spent several months writing curriculum on forage and grassland for the state of Virginia educational system before coming to Arkansas.

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Brittni Littlejohn

Brittni Littlejohn is an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Arkansas. Her areas of research interest broadly encompass beef cattle physiology and specifically include reproduction, prenatal programming, and epigenetics. Littlejohn completed her graduate degrees in Physiology of Reproduction at Texas A&M University and completed her postdoctoral training at Mississippi State University prior to joining the faculty ranks.

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Kirsten Midkiff

From her first days working on a family farm, Kirsten Midkiff knew she wanted to find a life in agriculture.

“Livestock judging and working with animals has always been a big part of my life,” she said. “I came from a background where we had cattle as well as sheep, so the health aspect of it always played a huge role in what we did.

Midkiff is a native of Fullerton, Louisiana, and now the extension animal health and wellbeing specialist.

Dan Quadros

Dan Quadros

Dan Quadros is an assistant professor and extension small ruminant specialist. Quadros received his M.S. and Ph.D. at São Paulo State University. He completed post-doctoral training at the University of Florida and Texas A&M University.  He will provide training and support for extension agents, as well as helping producers in their understanding of small ruminant husbandry and health. He will also provide leadership in small ruminant systems and management within the state and region.

Derico Setyabrata wearing glasses

Derico Setyabrata

Derico Setyabrata's research focuses on identifying flavor compound influences in dry-aged beef that can make lower-value cuts more palatable to consumers. Setyabrata started with the research arm of the Division of Agriculture, the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, in April. His research focuses on identifying flavor compound influences in dry-aged beef that can make lower-value cuts more palatable to consumers. 

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Becca Muenich

Agriculture is a good field for an engineer looking to have an impact on environmental sustainability, says Becca Muenich, associate professor of engineering for the University of Arkansas System.

Muenich is a northwest Arkansas native, so she knew a little about agriculture already. But following her bachelor’s in biological engineering from the University of Arkansas in 2009, she completed her master’s and doctorate in agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University.

Muenich returns to Arkansas from Arizona State University, where she was an assistant professor in the School for Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. She has more than 15 years of experience researching how environmental factors control water supplies and water quality in agricultural, urban and integrated systems.

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Hunter Goodman 

Hunter Goodman is an assistant professor for Community, Workforce and Economic Development. She focuses on building capacity across the state, particularly in the areas of nonprofit, workforce and community leadership for local development and resiliency. Goodman believes strongly in the power of community, organizations, local leaders, and neighborhoods to create change.

Goodman earned her doctoral degree in leadership studies from the University of Central Arkansas.

Jeantyl Norze

Jeantyl Norze

Jeantyl Norze is an associate professor - organizational accountability and evaluation for the Cooperative Extension Service. He earned his DVM degree at the Universidad Agraria de La Habana and his master’s degree and Ph.D. degree at Louisiana Sate University where he worked as a graduate research student, post-doctoral fellow, and adjunct faculty. 

He previously worked for extension services in Nevada and Connecticut. 

Steve Siegelin

Steve Siegelin

Steve Siegelin is an associate professor for professional development for the Cooperative Extension Service. He comes to the Division of Agriculture with a B.S. in horticulture and a master's in weed science, both from Purdue University. He recently earned his Ph.D. in international education leadership from the University of Montana.

Siegelin is well-steeped in the extension land-grant mission. Before coming to Arkansas, Siegelin was director of analysis, planning and evaluation for Montana State University Extension. Previously he served as a county director within the Michigan State Extension and was an extension educator in ag and natural resources for Purdue Extension.

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Elvis Elli

Meteorologists use models to predict the weather. Elvis Elli uses models to predict how crops might respond to a complex and changing environment.

Elli — a new assistant professor of crop physiology and adaptation to climate change — began work with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station in September. He will also teach crop physiology through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. The experiment station is the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Crop physiologists work to learn what influences plant growth and how plants respond to their changing environment.

There are different concepts of crop modeling, Elli said, but he describes it as “a framework that integrates soil, crop, weather and management information to predict and understand how crop yields will vary depending on the environment, and specific conditions on sites.” Elli noted he also uses a plant's genetics to help predict crop responses. Data analytics is an important skill set for this research.

Gerson Drescher portrait

Gerson Drescher

Gerson Drescher, assistant professor of soil fertility, is interested in expanding the tools and methods for plant and soil analysis to improve that line of communication.

Nutrient recommendations rely on timely and accurate analysis. “By the time you can visually diagnose a nutrient deficiency, you already compromised your yield potential to some extent,” Drescher said.

Drescher first attended the University of Arkansas in 2017 through an exchange program while working on his doctorate at the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil.

Portrait of Bronc Finch

Bronc Finch

Bronc Finch is an assistant professor and extension soil fertility specialist. Finch's primary focus will be on soil fertility for forage and pasture production. A large portion of Bronc’s research has focused on forage nutrient management and forage cover cropping in winter wheat grazing systems. However, during his graduate studies, Bronc managed trials in various cropping systems. He received his Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University. 

Samuel Fernandes

Samuel Fernandes

Samuel Fernandes, an agricultural statistics assistant professor, combines computer science advances with elements of agriculture to help plant breeders, growers and consumers. Fernandes. He will primarily split his research between the departments of crop, soil and environmental sciences and horticulture.

He developed a simulation package called “simplePHENOTYPES” on the statistical program R. The package helps researchers simulate phenotypic observations based on molecular marker data.

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Caio Canella Vieira

Soybean breeder Caio Canella Vieira is building a bridge from the past to the future at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

Vieira plans to use advanced genetic tools to speed up the development of new varieties with improvements like yield potential, adaptability in broad environments, and overall resilience to biotic and abiotic stressors.

He did his undergraduate work at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. He studied for a year at the University of Minnesota and was a visiting scholar at Purdue University before earning his master’s and a doctorate in plant breeding, genetics, and genomics at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Portrait of Rich Adams, with dark coat, red tie, dark short hair

Rich Adams

Rich Adams builds new statistical algorithms to make sense of the biological data from DNA, RNA, proteins and other complexities of biology.

If the terminology puzzles you, don’t worry. That’s why Adams is here.

Adams recently joined the Agricultural Statistics Laboratory and the department of entomology and plant pathology as an assistant professor of agricultural statistics at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. AAES is the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. He also has a teaching appointment in the University of Arkansas’ Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences where he will teach statistics and data science courses.

Natalie Clay

Natalie Clay 

Natalie Clay studies the health of forest ecosystems — not only by examining the trees but by inspecting the organisms living below them.

Clay is a new associate professor of entomology and plant pathology for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. Her research primarily focuses on how the availability of food and living space for leaf litter and soil arthropods impacts the forest ecosystem’s function.

Clay joined the experiment station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, in September. Along with her research efforts, she will teach classes through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

Portrait of Asia Kud

Asia Kud

Asia Kud, assistant professor of nematology, is probing the mechanisms by which nematodes overcome resistance in plants.

Kud earned a Master of Science degree in biotechnology with a specialization in immunology from Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland. She earned her doctorate in plant science at the University of Idaho, Moscow.

Her master’s thesis work focused on colon cancer research, but she switched to plant sciences for her Ph.D. She worked in molecular nematology as a post-doctoral scientist at the University of Idaho, focusing on nematode pests in potatoes.

At the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station she plans to focus on Arkansas crops, beginning with soybean, corn and cotton.

Rupesh Kariyat

Rupesh Kariyat

Plants naturally equip themselves with defenses against insect herbivores. Understanding how those defenses work can reveal alternative approaches to pest management. Rupesh Kariyat, associate professor of crop entomology with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, researches the principles of those defenses to find innovative pest management strategies. He will also work with the Cooperative Extension Service and teach courses through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

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Camila Nicolli

Camila Nicolli is an extension plant pathologist responsible for managing rice diseases at the Rice Research and Extension Center in Stuttgart. Developing and validating new technologies for enhancing disease control on those crops is one of her research and extension program's goals. Her research projects focus on better understanding the biology, ecology, and epidemiology of economically important pathogens, primarily in rice, to improve disease management in growing fields. Her extension efforts focus on generating, evaluating, and disseminating solutions to many disease problems associated with field crops in Arkansas.

Nicolli earned her Ph.D. at Federal University of Lavras in Brazil.

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Leigh Ann Bullington 

Leigh Ann Bullington is a former county extension staff chair who is now an extension Family and Consumer Science instructor who will serve as a mentor for agents. This is a new position. 

Bullington grew up in Marianna, Arkansas. She graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in Home Economics.

Bullington began her role as educator in October 2021 after working as an FCS agent in Cross County from 2011 to 2015, and then as extension staff chair of Woodruff County.  

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Joanna Fiddler

Joanna Fiddler, whose research focuses on the role of micronutrients in maintaining health, joined the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences and the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture as an assistant professor of human nutrition and dietetics in August 2024

She has a joint appointment with the college’s department of food science, as well as with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the Division of Agriculture.

The human nutrition and dietetics program is in the School of Human Environmental Sciences, which is part of Bumpers College.

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Josh Phelps

Josh Phelps is an associate professor with the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at the Cooperative Extension Service. Phelps works in the areas of community and public health nutrition, splitting his time with the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed), and General Nutrition responsibilities.

EFNEP and SNAP-Ed are two federally funded programs, which differ in target audiences and modes of implementation and evaluation and are delivered through the UADA Cooperative Extension Service via dedicated teams of Extension personnel across the state of Arkansas. Josh has the pleasure of working with the EFNEP and SNAP-Ed teams, as well as other folks to address nutrition education needs in Arkansas. 

Josh earned his MS in Nutritional Sciences and PhD in Human Environmental Sciences with Specialization in Nutritional Sciences from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Yuan Fang

Yuan Fang

Even with all of our sanitization technology, we shouldn’t underestimate foodborne pathogens, says food microbiologist Yuan Fang. Fang joined the Food Science faculty in January 2024.

Fang’s research through the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the Division of Agriculture, includes investigating microbial resistance to sanitizers used in food processing facilities such as high heat, pressure, acids, chlorine and hydrogen peroxide.

As a Ph.D. student at the University of Alberta, Fang developed a single-cell quantification technology that her team used to investigate Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli at the single-cell level instead of the population level. It was a first in the food safety research sector. Fang was the lead author of the study “Induction of Shiga-Toxin Encoding Prophage by Abiotic Stress in Food” published in 2017 by the American Society for Microbiology. This type of E. coli infection can produce bloody diarrhea in humans and in some cases, lead to kidney failure.

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Sun Ferreira

 Food scientist and food processing engineer Sun Ferreira’s diverse background and international experiences will aid him in all three areas of the land-grant mission: research, extension and teaching.

Originally from Brazil, Ferreira recently joined the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture as an assistant professor in the food science department. He previously conducted post-doctoral research training in food and protein chemistry at the University of Minnesota, plant genomic associations at Washington State University, and industry research and development experiences in Canada and Brazil.

Ferreira’s initial research through the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station will include upcycling agricultural byproducts and alternative protein development using mycoproteins through biomass production. Mycoprotein is an alternative protein source with a meat-like texture made from a naturally occurring fungus.

 

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Samira Feyzi

Samira Feyzi joins the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station as an assistant professor of food science specializing in protein chemistry and analysis research. She will conduct research through the experiment station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, and teach courses through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

“I’m interested in plant proteins because there is a real space to enrich this field,” Feyzi said. “There is a demand for novel protein sources because of population growth, nutritional requirements, health aspects, environmental concerns and adding more diversity to the market.”

Feyzi earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.

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Kristen Gibson

The Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station has appointed Kristen Gibson, professor of food safety and microbiology, director of the Center for Food Safety. As part of her new role, Gibson will take on a small joint appointment with the poultry science department.

Her research focuses on the fate and transport of pathogens within food systems, including food handling and processing. She specializes in investigating human noroviruses and food safety related to fresh produce and retail outlets.

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Darryl Holliday

The Arkansas Food Innovation Center at the Market Center of the Ozarks has a new director.

“I’m really excited about the new role,” said Darryl Holliday, who joined the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture in August. “I’m thrilled to bring my knowledge, my skill set to northwest Arkansas in ways of being able to support small business, local food distribution and food manufacturing.”

The Arkansas Food Innovation Center at the Market Center of the Ozarks, also known as AFIC@MCO, is a food processing center part of the Division of Agriculture’s food science department. It will operate out of the Market Center of the Ozarks, a 45,000-square-foot local food facility in downtown Springdale built with support from the Walton Family Foundation as part of the Northwest Arkansas Food Systems initiative. Currently under construction, the nearly $31 million facility will create a hub to grow Northwest Arkansas’ agriculture and food economy and serve the needs of the region’s farmers, food entrepreneurs and food buyers.

Terry Howell Jr.

Terry Howell Jr. 

Terry Howell Jr. sees biological and agricultural engineering as a hub for bridging the engineering needs of agricultural sciences and natural resource disciplines to sustainably feed the growing world population.

As the new biological and agricultural engineering department head, Howell brings 25 years of food industry and university research experience. 

Headshot of Scott LaFontaine

Scott Lafontaine

Scott Lafontaine, assistant professor in food chemistry, joined the department of food science at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas to investigate the chemical components that impart desirable smells, tastes and mouthfeels to drinks and foods.

Lafontaine earned bachelor’s degrees in molecular biology and chemistry in 2011 at Kean University in New Jersey. He earned a master’s degree in biotechnology at Kean in 2012 and another master’s degree in chemistry at Oregon State University in 2015. He earned a Ph.D. in food science at Oregon State in 2018.

 

Portrait of Anthony Bowden

Anthony Bowden

Anthony Bowden, is assistant professor - extension ornamentals specialist. The Jacksonville, Alabama, native earned his BS in agronomy and crop science from Auburn, remaining there to earn an MS in ornamental horticulture. He earned his Ph.D. in ornamental horticulture from Mississippi State. He's responsible for establishing a research and extension program to address the unique needs of the state's commercial ornamental hort industry.

 

Portrait of Wendell Hutchens

Wendell Hutchens

Drones and GPS technology are some of the emerging tools in the treatment of turfgrass diseases, and Wendell Hutchens hopes to find the best uses for these technologies in his new role with the turfgrass research program at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

In August, Hutchens joined the experiment station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. He will teach courses through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas and conduct outreach work through the Division of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Service.

Woman with long dark hair.

Mary Savin

A research-for-undergraduates experience “in the middle of nowhere” helped set Mary Savin on a path to becoming the next head of the horticulture department at the University of Arkansas.

Savin, a Massachusetts native, started her new job April 1. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biology/biological sciences from the University of Notre Dame, followed by a master’s in biodegradation and doctorate in soil ecology, both from the University of Rhode Island.

“I was a biology undergraduate trying to figure out what to do with my life,” she said. With 10 weeks of research and outdoor classes in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin border, “I found my calling.”

Man with blue shirt and glasses.

Andrew Bolton

Andrew Bolton joined the Cooperative Extension Service, the outreach and education arm of the Division of Agriculture, as an instructor in November 2023. In his new role, Bolton manages poultry youth activities across the state through 4-H and similar poultry youth programs. 4-H is designed to prepare young people to meet the challenges in their communities and provide youth with the skills to lead for a lifetime. 

Bolton’s duties include coordinating the 4-H Poultry Chain distribution, conducting the 4-H poultry BBQ contests, poultry judging contests and assisting with in-school poultry projects.

Man with white shirt, tie, dark hair

Ben Parsons

Poultry science nutritionist Benjamin Parsons plans to bring his passion to the poultry science department and Center of Excellence for Poultry Science through research.

Parsons joined the University of Arkansas System's Center of Excellence for Poultry Science and the poultry science department as an assistant professor in January. In his new role, Parsons carries out research through the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Parsons will also teach through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas. The Division of Agriculture, with the Bumpers College, provide the traditional land-grant triad of teaching, outreach and research.

Danielle Graham

Danielle Graham

Danielle Graham joined the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science and the Department of Poultry Science as an assistant professor with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture on July 1. Her research will include in vitro and/or in vivo studies with various parasites, including Histomonas meleagridis, Eimeria spp. and Enterococcus cecorum.

Tomi Obe

Tomi Obe

Tomi Obe, new assistant professor with the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science and department of poultry science, is eager to find ways to identify and control foodborne pathogens in the poultry industry.

She received her bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees in poultry science — all from Mississippi State University.

While at Mississippi State University, Obe said she became interested in improving food safety in poultry and poultry products. Her current research focuses on understanding Salmonella and Campylobacter persistence in poultry production and processing environments.

Obe also has a joint appointment with the food science department, and will contribute to the research conducted by the Center for Food Safety.

Man with glasses

Bill Potter

After a successful career in the poultry industry, Bill Potter has joined the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture hoping to give back to the industry and the university that means so much to him.

Potter joined the Division of Agriculture Sept. 3 as associate professor and Poultry Federation chair of food safety and processing extension, based in Fayetteville. Potter, who received his Master of Science and Ph.D. in poultry science from the University of Arkansas and has worked extensively with extension specialists through his career, said he was excited to join the Division of Agriculture as faculty.

“The poultry industry has provided me so many great opportunities, and I wanted to take this next phase of my career as a chance to return the favor,” Potter said.

Shawna Weimer

Shawna Weimer

A University of Arkansas alumna and Iowa native with academic research and animal industry experience is the new director of the Center for Food Animal Well-Being, a part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Shawna Weimer, Ph.D., os the new director for the Center that provides applied research results to producers and the public on animal health and well-being. She will also be teaching a graduate-level animal welfare course in the spring.

Man smiling, wearing red polo shirt

Zac Williams

Poultry science extension specialist Zac Williams is passionate about education, both in the poultry house and in the classroom.

Williams joined the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science and poultry science department as an assistant professor in June. In his new role, Williams provides poultry education and outreach through the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, with a focus on connecting with the commercial poultry industry in Arkansas.

Williams received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in poultry science from Mississippi State University. He earned a Ph.D. in poultry science from Auburn University.

 

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