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Jerry R. DeWitt is a long-time sustainable agriculture leader at the
state, regional and national levels. He was appointed Director of
the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture for a three-year
interim term beginning January 1, 2007. He had served as Interim
Director from November 2005 through December 2006. He also
coordinates the Iowa Learning Farm and Iowa State University
Extension's Sustainable Agriculture Program.
An entomologist by training, DeWitt has been a faculty member at
Iowa State University since 1972, about half that time as an
administrator in the ISU College of Agriculture and Iowa State
University Extension. Prior to joining the Leopold Center, he
coordinated ISU Extension's Pest Management and the Environment
Program as well as ISU Extension's Sustainable Agriculture Program.
During his ISU tenure, he has served as associate dean in the
College of Agriculture, assistant director for ISU Extension,
interim director for ISU Agriculture and Natural Resources
Extension, and state liaison for the National Sustainable
Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. On three occasions between 1993 and 2004,
he was interim national program leader for the USDA-SARE program and
has worked on special outreach projects for the agency.
In 1998, DeWitt was instrumental in establishing the nation's first
tenured organic agriculture faculty position at Iowa State
University. He also is credited with making the connection for a
unique partnership between ISU and the grassroots organization,
Practical Farmers of Iowa. During the late 1980s, he worked with
farmer groups to develop on-farm demonstrations on energy
conservation, and PFI members continue to do on-farm research today.
DeWitt also is an accomplished photographer and has visited many
farms throughout Iowa, nationally and internationally. His
photographs have been published in two books: People Sustaining
the Land (Vagnetti and DeWitt, 2002), and Renewing the
Countryside - Iowa, a 2003 project supported by the Leopold
Center.
He received the 2005 Spencer Award for Sustainable Agriculture, the
1994 Epsilon Sigma Phi Regional Distinguished Service Award in
Extension, and the Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award in 1991
from Practical Farmers of Iowa.
He was a member of the Leopold Center's first advisory board from
1987 to 1997. He also is a member of the North Central Region SARE
Administrative Council and the governing board for the Organic
Farming Research Foundation. He has authored more than 105
publications, pamphlets and videotapes, and continues to be a
frequent speaker.
The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture was created by the
Iowa Legislature to develop sustainable agricultural practices that
are both profitable and conserve natural resources.
January 2007
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