Kimberlee Kae Kidwell Photo: Courtesy of Washington State University

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Kimberlee Kae Kidwell will serve as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences effective Nov. 1, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

Currently the executive associate dean of the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University – a diverse college with 15 reporting units ranging from apparel, merchandising, design and textiles to biological systems engineering – Kidwell is a nationally respected scholar of plant breeding and genetics. She served as the college’s acting dean in 2015-16.  

At Illinois, she also will hold the inaugural Robert A. Easter Chair.

“Professor Kidwell has excellent scholarly credentials, leadership experience and management skills,” said Edward Feser, interim provost at Illinois. “She has demonstrated a passion for students and teaching throughout her career, and she has developed her own leadership skills training program, which she plans to relocate to Illinois in partnership with WSU.

“From the exceptional quality of her extensive interactions with campus representatives throughout the search process, it’s clear that she will be an outstanding leader of ACES.”

Kidwell earned two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She joined the Washington State faculty in 1994.

Kidwell will succeed ACES Dean Robert Hauser, who has served in that role since 2010. He was interim dean of ACES for a year prior to that, and also served two terms as head of the department of agricultural and consumer economics, from 1995 to 2001 and from 2004 to 2009.

Hauser has developed and led exceptional U. of I. Extension programs, taught several undergraduate and graduate courses since he joined the faculty in 1982, and received numerous research and Extension awards.

“Dean Hauser has been a tireless advocate for the faculty, students and staff of ACES and a respected ambassador for its programs and achievements across Illinois and the U.S.,” Feser said.

Join us the College of ACES Alumni Association as we celebrate 60 years and recognize outstanding alumni award winners including the Oustanding Young Alumni Award and ACES Family Spirit awards.

Join the College of ACES Alumni Association for the 2016 ACES Family Academies event on July 7-8, 2016 in Champaign, IL. Alumni invited to return to campus with their children, grandchildren and nieces and nephews to participate in a 1.5 day educational program with hands-on classes. Families will live in Bousfield Hall and eat in the dining halls to experience campus life.

We hope you will plan to join us in 2016 for ACES Family Academies!

All families are invited to join ACES graduates at the ACES Tassel Turn event, a cake and punch reception, in between the two ceremonies from 2:30 – 4:30 p.m at the Colonnades Club in Memorial Stadium.  Registration is open for families to register at http://go.aces.illinois.edu/tasselturn.   This event is sponsored by the College of ACES Alumni Association and all graduates will all receive a green screen photo with the alma mater and an ACES Alumni t-shirt.

Register by May 9, 2016.

Join us in recognition of outstanding ACES Alumni who have made significant impact in their careers and communities.

• W. Scott McAdam – B.S. '80 Horticulture from Lemont, IL.
  Scott is the President and Co-owner of McAdam Landscaping.
• James R. Shearl – M.S. '76 Extension Education from Loda, IL.
  Jim is the Director of Quality Assurance at Ag Reliant Genetics, LLC.
• Dr. Robert J. Gustafson – B.S. '71 Ag Engineering, M.S. '72 Ag Engineering from Worthington, OH.
  Robert is the Retired Director of the Engineering Education Innovation Center & the Honda Professor for Engineering Education and Professor Emeritus, Food, Agricultural & Biological Engineering at Ohio State.
• Donna R. Greene – B.S. '75 Home Economics Education from Champaign, IL.
  Donna is the Senior Managing Director and Executive Vice President of Busey Wealth Management, Inc.

Cost: $30 per person

Date: Monday, April 11, 2016

Time: 11:30am - 1:30pm

Where: I-Hotel & Conference Center, Chancellor Ballroom
1900 S. First Street, Champaign, IL 61820

Register online by April 1, 2016.

Free parking is available outside of the I-Hotel and Conference Center.

URBANA, Ill. – This fall at the University of Illinois, students studying plant and soil sciences are the first to experience a state-of-the-art laboratory in Turner Hall. Transforming the lab originally built for students in 1963 into a 21^st century learning environment has been accomplished through a recently announced $1 million pledge from the Monsanto Company.

Vice President for Global Plant Breeding at Monsanto Samuel Eathington said, “As a 1990 and 1995 graduate from the University of Illinois, I’m excited about this partnership between Monsanto and the University. I remember that as an undergraduate, I dedicated a year in the Turner Hall soil labs helping to prepare material for other classes. This transformation is a key step to continue the legacy of success for future leaders in science and agriculture by providing students with the most advanced learning facilities available.”    

Gone are the fixed lab benches, overbuilt cabinetry, and outdated technology of the mid-1900s science classroom. The new soil science lab is a flexible space that features reconfigurable furniture, a unique 20-foot writable glass teaching surface, and integrated technology, making it an up-to-date learning environment.

Illinois Interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson says the revitalized facility will have an immediate and direct impact. “This gift is helping us transform another of our learning environments in a way that reflects cutting-edge research science in this century. Investments such as this allow us to attract the best students in the world – students who will graduate and become the next generation of leading soil and crop scientists.”

Austin Happel, a doctoral student with a teaching assistantship in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, taught classes in the lab before and after the renovation. “There were no computers or projection equipment in the old space but in the new lab space I can put instructions up on monitors directly where students are working on labs,” he said. “It will be exciting to see what lab materials are added to the current course now that the lab space allows for more advanced experiments that will really aide in students’ understanding of the important characteristics of soils.”

Each year hundreds of undergraduate students who are pursuing a broad range of soil science programs will directly benefit from the use of the soil science lab. Used primarily as a teaching lab, the space will facilitate the study of soil science, natural resources, and other subjects by students in the Departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, Crop Sciences, Technical Systems Management, and Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

“New paradigms in education and methods of analysis have dramatically changed teaching and research in soil science and crop improvement. This newly renovated lab fulfills the expectations of ACES students and faculty for a modern educational experience,” said Robert Hauser, dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.

Turner Hall is named for Jonathan Baldwin Turner who was instrumental in establishing the University of Illinois and the Morrill Act, which created land grant universities. The Turner Hall Transformation Project is renovating all teaching laboratories and classrooms in Turner Hall. The project has met 80 percent of its fundraising goal of $5 million. These private gifts help leverage campus-based funding, now totaling an additional $16 million, bringing the total costs of renovating classrooms and teaching labs to benefit ACES students to $21 million. 

-30-

About Monsanto Company

Monsanto is committed to bringing a broad range of solutions to help nourish our growing world. Monsanto produces seeds for fruits, vegetables and key crops – such as corn, soybean, and cotton – that help farmers have better harvests while using water and other important resources more efficiently. The company works to find sustainable solutions for soil health, help farmers use data to improve farming practices and conserve natural resources, and provide crop protection products to minimize damage from pests and disease. Through programs and partnerships, Monsanto collaborates with farmers, researchers, nonprofit organizations, universities, and others to help tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges. To learn more about Monsanto, visit discover.monsanto.com and monsanto.com. Follow Monsanto on Twitter® at twitter.com/MonsantoCo, on the company blog, Beyond the Rows®, at monsantoblog.com or subscribe to receive their News Release RSS Feed.

Join the College of ACES in welcoming the newest additions to the ACES faculty lineup.