I’m pleased to report that the WSU Office of Research has identified Plant Pathology’s Achour Amiri and Human Development’s Amy Salazar as winners of the Pacesetter Award for FY 2022. Achour and Amy were selected for the award as promising junior tenure/tenure-track faculty members who have set new standards of achievement in successfully leading research grant funding, publications, and citations while at WSU. Please take a minute to reach out to Amy and Achour and congratulate them! Their efforts reflect the standards of excellence for which CAHNRS strives!
In other good news, Jill McCluskey was selected as the Alumna of the Year for the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley. Congratulations, Jill!
I had a great time on the west side last week visiting the Mount Vernon Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center, the Skagit and Whatcom County Extension offices, the Bread Lab, and a number of friends and supporters, including the Washington State Wine Commission. I appreciate everyone who was able to take time to meet with me and share their program. We have amazing personnel who are doing great things across the landscape. Having the opportunity to set eyes on programs and the people behind them helps me articulate our value and impact to those who don’t know us.
This week I am in Pullman working on a future state vision for CAHNRS. We have creative ideas submitted by chairs and directors. My hope is that each engaged their teams in developing the ideas. The next step is to pull things together under a bit of a road map and set of pillars. Please check in with your unit leader periodically to inquire how things are going. We also have a list of nominees for a CAHNRS committee that will guide the process and vision. By the end of this week, I hope to begin reaching out to nominees to secure commitments and seat the committee.
Other happenings this week include some time with CAHNRS alumnus Gordon Davis. I am looking forward to meeting with Gordon to discuss the Cashup Davis Family Endowment with him. The AgForestry Leadership Class 44 meets this week as well. I am excited to see WSU represented in this year’s class by Extension Forestry Team Leader Andy Perleberg. On Saturday, it is back to football with a trip to Puyallup to watch the game on the big screen. Here’s hoping to a better outcome this weekend!