AMES, Iowa – Kendall Lamkey has been named associate dean for facilities and operations for Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, effective May 16, 2023.
Lamkey, a professor of agronomy and crop breeding, has been a faculty member at Iowa State since 2002. He has chaired the Department of Agronomy since 2007 after serving one year as the interim chair.
In his new role, Lamkey will work in collaboration with the dean, associate deans and department chairs to ensure the college’s facilities and operations directly advance the college’s mission. This work includes college facilities on- and off-campus, and the laboratories, farms, greenhouses and other locations that enable the work and learning of students, faculty and staff. He will also lead safety planning efforts and operations.
“I am very pleased that Dr. Lamkey will take on this new role," said Daniel J. Robison, holder of the endowed dean’s chair in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "Kendall enters this new position with a terrific background and experience, and dedication to our continual pursuit of excellence. He is well acquainted with the college’s faculty and researchers, our partners and stakeholders, and our students, who all use our facilities, farms, and more. He'll be a great member of the leadership team and serve the college from-one-end-to-the-other in this new role."
Prior to joining the faculty at Iowa State, Lamkey worked 18 years for the USDA Agricultural Research Service. He earned his doctorate from Iowa State in plant breeding and genetics, and he has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Illinois.
Lamkey said he is excited to take on new challenges and opportunities to serve the college and its diverse groups.
“I feel like I’ve always had a service mentality,” Lamkey said. “I will have a lot to learn, but I think there will be a lot in common with my previous work. Chairing a department is all about supporting the success of faculty, staff and students and developing effective relationships with interested partners. The focus of the facilities and operations mission will be to support faculty, students, staff and stakeholders in the effective use of our properties and capabilities.”
“That includes thousands of acres here in central Iowa and across the state that we own or help manage,” he said. “This is an asset that is quite unique and brings us into close relationships with communities and the farm industry.”
Among his achievements as chair of the Department of Agronomy, Lamkey is especially proud of increasing female enrollment in a traditionally male field and being a strong faculty mentor. He has also been active in strengthening graduate education and, as department chair, taught an annual undergraduate senior seminar in agronomy.
As a researcher, he has authored or co-authored dozens of refereed journal articles and other publications. He has served on advisory boards for Iowa State partnerships with several international projects including the Makerere University Regional Center of Excellence in Crop Improvement, Kampala, Uganda, and the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator modeling platform. Lamkey is a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America.
“It is very exciting to welcome Kendall to this role in the College!” said Carolyn Lawrence-Dill, CALS associate dean for research and discovery. “His expertise, experience and focus on enabling all people an equal shot at engagement fit so well for serving as associate dean for operations.”
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University is one of the world’s leading institutions of agriculture, with more than 160 years of leadership in science, education and extension. The college has more than 300 tenured and tenure eligible faculty, 105 term faculty, 450 professional and scientific staff and 47 merit staff in 14 departments, eight of which are co-administered with another college. More than 130 faculty members use the college’s research and demonstration farms for teaching, research and extension. Approximately 2,000 of the college’s 5,000 students receive hands-on education experiences each year at the teaching and research farms.