June 22, 2011
AMES, Iowa — Iowa State University has begun a nationwide search for the next director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
ISU President Gregory Geoffroy appointed Sharron Quisenberry, ISU Vice President for Research and Economic Development, to chair the search committee. Members of the committee are:
- Bill Ehm, water policy director, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and Leopold Center Advisory Board member
- Dan Frieberg, West Des Moines businessman and advisory board member
- Matt Helmers, ISU associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering
- Catherine Kling, ISU professor of economics and head of the Resource and Environmental Policy Division, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development
- Matt Liebman, Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture and ISU professor of agronomy
- Ann McCarthy, ISU state relations officer
- James Russell, ISU professor of animal science
- Jennifer Steffen, chair of the advisory board and Birmingham farmer
- Keith Summerville, associate professor of environmental science and policy and associate dean Drake University College of Arts and Sciences, and advisory board member
Applications are due Oct. 1. On-campus interviews are expected to be held in November. After the search process concludes, President Geoffroy will select the director from a list of candidates provided by the advisory board.
Iowa State University's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture is a research and education center with statewide programs to develop sustainable agricultural practices that are both profitable and conserve natural resources. The center is named for Aldo Leopold, a Burlington, Iowa, native known internationally as a conservationist, ecologist and educator. The center was established under Iowa's Groundwater Protection Act of 1987 with a three-fold mission: to conduct research to identify and reduce negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts of agricultural practices; to research and assist in developing alternative practices consistent with a sustainable agriculture; and to work with ISU Extension to inform the agricultural community and the public of its findings. The center was established in the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, the 123-year-old research program in ISU's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.