By Cat Holmes
The University of Georgia
Mel Garber was named associate dean for extension in the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences in an announcement released today.
The appointment is effective July 1.
Garber will serve as senior administrator for the UGA
Cooperative Extension Service (CES), said Gale Buchanan, dean
and director of the CAES. The extension service is the
university’s largest public service and outreach program,
serving the state with a team of county extension agents and
state specialists.
Currently the director of the Georgia Center for Urban
Agriculture and a horticulture professor at UGA, Garber will
succeed Bobby L. Tyson, who is retiring.
He will coordinate extension programs with research and teaching
units of the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences, College of Family and Consumer Sciences and Daniel B.
Warnell School of Forest Resources.
Garber’s appointment was the result of an international search,
said Ivery Clifton, CAES senior associate dean and chair of the
search committee.
“We had two excellent candidates to choose from within the
college,” Buchanan said. “Dr. Garber’s leadership positions in
university, industry and community settings and his extensive
teaching, research and extension experience demonstrate his
ability to best lead the Cooperative Extension Service.”
“I met with both candidates for the position of associate dean
for the UGA Cooperative Extension,” said UGA provost Arnett
Mace. “I support Dean Buchanan’s selection of Dr. Garber, given
the breadth of his experience and expertise applicable to this
vital position.”
The CES delivers educational information from the university to
Georgians on topics including agriculture, horticulture, the
environment, food, nutrition and child development. Extension
also coordinates the state’s 4-H program.
Garber grew up on a dairy farm in Louisiana, where his family
still grows soybeans, milo and sweet potatoes. He earned an
undergraduate degree from the University of Louisiana Lafayette
and a doctorate in horticulture from Cornell University.
His industry experience includes 13 years, with both research
and business management positions, at Weyerhaeuser, one of the
world’s largest integrated forest-products companies.
After a stint at Iowa State University, Garber’s teaching and
research work at UGA has focused on horticultural crops and
developing the Georgia Center for Urban Agriculture (GCUA). The
GCUA serves the state’s urban agricultural industries and
consumers.
(Cat Holmes is a science writer with the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
