July 27, 2004
Joe Colletti has been named the interim chair of the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management (NREM) in the College of Agriculture at Iowa State University.
On Sept. 1 Colletti will replace Mike Kelly, who has served as NREM department chair since 1995. Kelly is leaving to take a position as dean of the College of Natural Resources at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg.
Colletti is an associate professor in the NREM department and has been a member of the faculty at Iowa State University since 1978. Colletti received his bachelor's degree in forestry from Humboldt State University in 1972 and earned his master's and Ph.D. in forest economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
The NREM department offers majors in animal ecology and forestry and students can choose from four to five options within each major. The department has 470 undergraduates, 50 graduates and 52 faculty members. The department's research and extension activities are focused on natural resource and environmental issues.
A national search for a new department chair has begun and Robert Martin, chair of the department of agricultural education and studies, will chair the search committee.