The School of Natural Resources in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) invites applications and nominations for the H.E. Garrett Endowed Chair Professor and Director of the Center for Agroforestry. This is a unique endowed position with strong financial support involving a great interdisciplinary team of staff and collaborating faculty. The successful candidate will lead the research, education, and outreach programs to fulfill the mission of the Center. The individual hired will have the opportunity to further build upon a widely-recognized program that has a major impact across the U.S. and even internationally.
Starting date: August 1, 2024 or as negotiated.
About the College and Center
CAFNR, along with other MU collaborators, has world-class strengths in human health response to nutrition choice and physical activity, plant sciences and novel compounds, animal models for human health applications, genomics, natural resources, and food and agricultural policy. The Center for Agroforestry is a CAFNR Program of Distinction and is recognized as a preeminent global center contributing to the science and practice of agroforestry. The Center is supported by over $10 million in endowments. The Center has a very healthy annual budget, with approximately one million in annually recurring federal funding that serves as core support and an additional $3.2 million in annual extramural funding currently, for a total budget of over $4 million in annual funding supporting the center in addition to the endowment funding. The Center also has strong ties to other interdisciplinary programs at the University in regenerative agriculture, soil health, forestry, water science, wildlife, and related natural resource areas. Externally, the Center has many great partners, ranging from the Missouri Department of Conservation and Missouri NRCS to national groups like The Nature Conservancy.
As Director, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to collaborate with and lead a strong Center for Agroforestry team of 18 faculty and staff plus several post-docs and graduate students. The Director will provide strategic and programmatic direction of the Center, covering basic and applied research, graduate education, outreach, and economic development.
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
• Administering the Center’s annual operating budget and core faculty (5 members), staff (13 members), and graduate program
• Guiding the strategic direction of the Center’s research, teaching, and outreach programs
• Developing a nationally recognized, extramurally funded research program relevant to agroforestry in his/her specialized field, including mentoring of graduate students and postdoctoral research associates
• Teaching one graduate course in the agroforestry core curriculum annually