Join us for a webinar series highlighting opportunities and challenges of transdisciplinary approaches within agricultural research. Presented by USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the National Agricultural Library, the seminar series will examine strategies for implementing transdisciplinary approaches, team-building and overcoming challenges to encourage the adoption of and training in transdisciplinary systems.
Applying transdisciplinary approaches to projects and initiatives requires intentionality, collaboration, and engagement, and it includes working with Extension organizations and community-based partners. This session will feature a moderated panel discussion among current Land-grant University administrators who will reflect on their experiences supporting faculty and staff in adopting transdisciplinary approaches and leveraging the power of engagement; provide key insights related to the challenges of such work and the opportunities to overcome them; and discuss how to navigate multifaceted projects that support inclusivity and diverse perspectives to address the complex challenges facing food and agricultural systems today. Participants are encouraged to shape the discussion by submitting their questions through the registration form.
Speakers
Marshall Stewart (Moderator)
Kansas State University
Executive Vice President for External Engagement and Chief of Staff
With a passion for supporting and strengthening the people of Land-grant Institutions, Marshall Stewart is a nationally recognized leader in higher education and university stakeholder engagement. As Kansas State University’s first senior vice president for executive affairs, university engagement and partnerships, and chief of staff, he acts as the president’s principal liaison with university, government and community leadership.
Reporting directly to the president and serving as a member of the president’s cabinet, Stewart facilitates strategic initiatives and partnerships that have local, state, national and international impact. He leads and directs university-wide engagement efforts to strengthen the institution, enhance economic impact and deliver on the promise as a next-generation Land-grant University. Stewart oversees administrative staff from the Offices of the President, Government Relations, Engagement, K-State 105, Military and Veterans Affairs, the Division of Communications and Marketing, McCain Auditorium and the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art. He provides leadership for the prestigious Landon Lecture Series and coordinates special projects in collaboration with the president, provost and other university senior leaders. Additionally, he partners strategically with the KSU Foundation, K-State Alumni Association and K-State Athletics to advance the Next-Gen K-State strategic plan.
Stewart earned his bachelor's degree in agricultural education, master's in agricultural education and doctorate in education with an emphasis in agricultural and Extension education, all from North Carolina State University.
Chancellor Robert Jones
University of Illinois
Chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Robert J. Jones became the 10th chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on September 26, 2016.
At Illinois, Jones serves as chancellor of the state’s flagship, Land-grant University. Jones’ tenured faculty home is in the Department of Crop Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES). He is the first African American scholar appointed as Urbana chancellor in the institution’s history. He is the current chair of the Board of Directors for the Association of American Universities (AAU) and he chairs the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors.
At Illinois, he has led the university in establishing a new vision of the land-grant university for the 21st century, while honoring the institution’s long history of achievement. The university recently completed a $2.7 billion philanthropic campaign that was the largest in the university’s history and included two of the largest private gifts ever made to Illinois. Jones has implemented the vision of creating the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the first engineering-based medical school in the world. The hiring of an inaugural vice chancellor for diversity, education and inclusion was a major step in fostering an even more open and collaborative community of students and faculty. And with the Illinois Commitment, a program that guarantees four years free tuition to state residents with family incomes less than $67,100, Jones has continued to deliver on the university’s founding promise of making a world-class college education affordable and accessible.
During his tenure, the university’s research enterprise has become a central component of the state’s efforts to build an infrastructure for innovation and discovery. He was selected by Governor J.B. Pritzker to co-chair the Innovate Illinois partnership to coordinate the state’s efforts to secure critical federal research investments that will put the state at the center of the industries that will define the 21st century. Illinois, in partnership with the University of Chicago, leads the $200 million Chicago Quantum Exchange initiative that is establishing the state the center of the quantum sciences and information in the nation. The university, in partnership with the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, was chosen to lead the $275 million Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago – an unprecedented initiative that seeks to redefine how we understand human biology. Under Jones’ leadership, the university has been recognized as the state institution that is best positioned to convene public and private partnerships and collaborations to solve problems that are too large and too complex for any single institution to address alone.
A Georgia native, Jones earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Fort Valley State College, a master’s degree in crop physiology from the University of Georgia, and a doctorate in crop physiology from the University of Missouri, Columbia. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America. He began his academic career as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota in 1978 where he spent more than three decades as an internationally respected authority on plant physiology and a nationally recognized university administrator.
Jones is married to Dr. Lynn Hassan Jones, MD, a muscular skeletal diagnostic radiologist. Together they have five children and a growing number of grandchildren.
Wendy Powers
Washington State University
Dean, College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences
Dr. Wendy Powers is the inaugural Cashup Davis Family Endowed Dean of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences. Joining CAHNRS on Aug. 15, 2022, Powers embodies the Land-grant mission through her collaborative work with agricultural producers and research peers nationwide. Powers began her career as an assistant professor and Extension specialist in animal science at Iowa State University, then moved to Michigan State University, where she served as a full professor in the departments of Animal Science and Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering, Extension specialist and director of environmental stewardship for animal agriculture in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. She was also the first director of the Agriculture and Agribusiness Institute for Michigan State University Extension.
Dr. Powers came to Washington State University from the University of California, where she had served as associate vice president for the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources since 2016. She led academic, research and outreach programs, overseeing county-based cooperative Extension outreach, 12 statewide programs and institutes, and nine research and Extension centers across California.
Jay Akridge
Purdue University
Provost Emeritus;
Trustee Chair in Teaching and Learning Excellence and Professor of Agricultural Economics
Jay Akridge is the Trustee Chair in Teaching and Learning Excellence and Professor of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. He served from 2017-2022 as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Diversity at Purdue. As Chief Academic Officer, he led the office responsible for the University’s overall academic strategy, faculty-related matters, teaching and learning, student life, enrollment management, engagement, and diversity, inclusion and belonging, with a total budget of approximately $2 billion, student enrollment of more than 50,000, 2,700 faculty members, and 8,000 staff.
Jay previously served for more than 8 years as the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture where he had administrative responsibility for the academic, research, Extension and international programs of the College. He served as Director of the Purdue Center for Food and Agricultural Business from 2000-2007, as Interim Vice Provost for Engagement at Purdue in 2007-08, and as Interim Dean of Agriculture in 2008-09.
Co-Organizers
Doug Steele, Vice President, Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources, The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities
Ashley Mueller, National Program Leader, USDA NIFA
Jessica Shade, National Program Leader, USDA NIFA
This is the fourth webinar in the Transdisciplinary Approaches webinar series. Stay tuned for more webinars. Contact Dr. Jessica Shade with questions.
Reasonable Accommodation & Language Services
If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in this webinar, please contact Jessica Shade at jessica.shade@usda.gov no later than 10 days prior to the event. NIFA offers language access services, such as interpretation and translation of vital information, free of charge. If you need interpretation or translation services, please visit NIFA Language Access Services or contact Lois Tuttle, Equal Opportunity Specialist, at Lois.Tuttle@usda.gov or (443) 386-9488.