Leopold Center - DeWitt named Leopold Center director

1-9-07

DEWITT NAMED LEOPOLD CENTER DIRECTOR

AMES, Iowa -- Jerry DeWitt has been appointed Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, effective January 1, 2007. He had been serving a two-year term as Interim Director since November 1, 2005.

The appointment was approved by Iowa State University President Geoffroy as a unanimous recommendation from the Leopold Center's 17-member advisory board. The board recommended that DeWitt serve as director for a three-year interim appointment, through December 31, 2009.

"We believe that this interim appointment will provide continuity and a stable operation for the Leopold Center in the future," said Paul Mugge, an organic farmer from northwest Iowa who chairs the advisory board. "Over the past year Dr. DeWitt has shown leadership and moved forward with the Center's initiatives in ecology, marketing and food systems and policy."

Currently, DeWitt is working with staff, advisory board members and outside experts on final reviews of approximately 30 competitive grants for new research and education projects, including a special call for projects that would help grass-based dairy enterprises and those that address water quality. The Center will invest about $1.1 million in its 2007 competitive grants program, about half for new projects and the balance for multi-year projects that began in 2005 and 2006.

In 2009, the Leopold Center Advisory Board will convene an external search committee for a new director. The board is responsible for providing the president of Iowa State University a list of three candidates from which to select a director.

Former Center Director Fred Kirschenmann continues to serve as Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center.

Kirschenmann provides guidance at the national level on a number of projects including the creation of markets and supply chains for products from midsized farms. He also serves on the board of directors for Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area and Whiterock Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that manages a 1,300-acre conservation area in west-central Iowa.