Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Search begins for new Center director

Back to Leopold Letter Spring 2009

A nationwide search for the next director of the Leopold Center has begun. Maynard Hogberg, who chairs the Animal Science department at Iowa State and also represents the university on the Center’s advisory board, heads up the search committee. The committee was appointed by ISU Executive Vice Provost Elizabeth Hoffman in February.

“This is a high profile position and we are looking for a preeminent scientist to provide the leadership and direction for where we need to go in the future for sustainable agriculture in Iowa,” Hogberg said. Applications for the position are due July 1.

Jerry DeWitt will complete his three-year interim appointment as director of the Leopold Center on December 31, 2009, when he plans to retire after nearly 38 years of service to Iowa State University and involvement in sustainable agriculture. DeWitt is the third director of the Leopold Center, created by the Iowa legislature in 1987 as an ISU unit advised by an independent board of Iowa citizens and academics.

According to the position notice, candidates must be committed to the mission of the Leopold Center and show evidence of a “holistic viewpoint relative to solving agricultural, environmental and social problems as outlined in the Groundwater Protection Act.” Candidates also must meet qualifications for tenure in an academic department in the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The candidates must have a “distinguished record of research” and success in obtaining competitive grant and philanthropic funding.

Laura Jackson, University of Northern Iowa biology professor and chair of the Center’s advisory board, also is serving on the search committee. “We have a diverse board that represents many aspects of agriculture in Iowa, and we are committed to working hard to attract outstanding candidates who can keep the momentum going in Iowa toward a more sustainable agriculture,” she said.

The committee conducts the search, from which the advisory board selects three names to forward to ISU President Gregory Geoffroy for the final decision and appointment.

Leopold Center advisory board member Jim Penney, who recently retired as manager of Heart of Iowa Cooperative, is a member of the search committee. He served on the last director search committee in 2000, when Fred Kirschenmann was hired. Other advisory board members on the committee are Maury Wills, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship representative and organic grower; and Aaron Heley Lehman, a central Iowa farmer who represents Iowa Farmers Union on the advisory board.

Other members of the search committee are Rich Pirog, representing Leopold Center staff; Andy Baumert, State Relations Officer for ISU; Paul Brown, Assistant Director for Agriculture and Natural Resources, ISU Extension; Thomas Isenhart, Associate Professor, ISU Natural Resource Ecology and Management; and Matt Liebman, Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture at ISU.


 

Back to Leopold Letter Spring 2009