The 19 institutions established under the Second Morrill Act of 1890 comprise a group of historically black universities (HBCU’s) seeded with federal dollars in order to strengthen research, extension and education in food and agricultural sciences. Applied economics is an important discipline across both courses of study.

At 11 a.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 14, the Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics will bring together representatives of 1890 schools and national and regional agricultural and applied economics associations to discuss the importance of this nexus in 1890 universities’ curriculum, and the greater importance of 1890 universities’ graduates in the nation’s food and commodities’ policy work.

This 90-minute panel webinar will be led by council board member Chyi Lyi “Kathleen” Liang, chair of the Agriculture and Applied Economics Association mentoring committee and faculty at North Carolina A&T State University, an 1890 school. She’ll be joined by these presenters and speakers:

• Kenrett Jefferson-Moore is a professor and chair of the Department of Agribusiness, Applied Economics and Agriscience Education at NC A&T State.  She received her doctorate from Auburn University, and currently serves as the 1890 Land-Grant Colleges and Universities representative on the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics (NAREEE) Advisory Board and chairs the AAEA’s Committee on the Opportunities and Status of Blacks in Agricultural Economics (COSBAE).

• Raymon Shange currently serves as the director of the Carver Integrative Sustainability Center and associate Extension administrator at Tuskeegee University. He is responsible for the alignment of integrative research and extension projects targeting production, post-harvest, and policy issues plaguing food systems in the Black Belt South, specifically in Alabama.

• Dawn Mellion-Patin is a vice chancellor at Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center.  After receiving a bachelor’s and master’s from Southern University in plant and soil science, she obtained a Ph.D. from Iowa State University in Ag & Extension Education, and separately, an MBA from Jones International University. Much of her academic and professional life has been spent working with small farmers and at–risk youth.

• Dawn Thilmany is the president of AAEA, and an Extension economist and professor at Colorado State University specializing in labor and agribusiness management. 

• Sarah Jacobson is an associate professor of economics at Williams College where she is an environmental and behavioral economist, and the diversity and inclusion chair for the Northeastern Agricultural Resource Economics Association.

• David Anderson is president-elect of the Southern Agricultural Economics Association and a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M. He is a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension economist for livestock and food product marketing. 

• Glynn Tonsor, a professor at Kansas State University, whose particular focus within the wider range of integrated research and extension activities is the cattle/beef and swine/pork industries, is president-elect of the Western Agricultural Economics Association. 

The program will begin with comments from the speakers representing associations, transition to discussion and presentations from faculty of the three 1890 schools, and finish with questions from attendees. Faculty and administrators from other 1890 schools and HBCU’s are encouraged to register, and share those plans and areas of interest with C-FARE Board Chair Gal Hochman (boardchair@cfare.org) and Bobby Ampezzan, communications director (information@cfare.org).

This program is supported in part by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service and National Agricultural Statistics Service.