QUICK LINKS Today's News News releases ISU homepage NEWS RELEASE 10-24-01 Contacts: Rollin Richmond, Provost, (515) 294-0070 Stanley Johnson, Vice Provost for Extension, (515) 294-6192 Diana Pounds, University Relations, (515) 294-4845 THREE AGRICULTURE DEAN CANDIDATES TO VISIT CAMPUS Three candidates for the dean of the College of Agriculture at Iowa State University will visit campus during the next couple of weeks. The candidates are: Thomas A. Fretz, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland, College Park; Lee E. Sommers, director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Colorado State University, Fort Collins; and Catherine E. O'Connor Woteki, senior research scientist with the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland, College Park, and professor of nutrition and food safety at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Each candidate will spend two days on campus during the weeks of Oct. 29 and Nov. 5. Each will participate in an open forum on "Agricultural and College Issues, Including Diversity. Forum dates are: Fretz on Oct. 29, Sommers on Nov. 5 and Woteki on Nov. 7. All forums will be from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in 1204 Kildee Hall, and will be followed by a public reception. Candidates' complete vitas are available on the provost web site at http://www.provost.iastate.edu/agdean/. Thomas Fretz Fretz has been agriculture and natural resources dean and director of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station and Maryland Cooperative Extension Service since 1994. Prior to that, he was at Iowa State University, where he served for five years as associate dean and director of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station. At Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Va., he served as interim director of international development, head of the horticulture department and professor. He also headed the horticulture department at Kansas State University, Manhattan. He received a B.S. (1964) in horticulture from University of Maryland, M.S. (1966) in horticulture from the University of Delaware, and Ph.D. (1970) in plant science from the University of Delaware. Lee Sommers Sommers has been director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Colorado State since 1996. He also served as interim dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State for more than a year. He was a soil scientist with the USDA's Cooperative States Research, Education, and Extension Service, Washington, D.C., in 1994-95. He also headed the department of soil and crop sciences at Colorado State and was an agronomy professor at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. He received a B.S. (1966) in agriculture from Wisconsin State University-Platteville, and M.S. (1969) and Ph.D. (1971), both in soil science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Catherine O'Connor Woteki Woteki was recently appointed senior research scientist with the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland and also is professor of nutrition and food safety at the University of Nebraska. A nutritional epidemiologist, she served from 1997 through January 2001 as the first under secretary for food safety in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She also has served as deputy undersecretary for research, education and economics at the USDA; deputy associate director for science in the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy; director of the food and nutrition board of the National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine; and in other positions with U.S. departments and offices. Wotecki received the B.S. (1969) in biology and chemistry from Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, Va.; and M.S. and Ph.D. (1974) in human nutrition from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The new dean of the College of Agriculture will succeed Richard Ross, who began a two-year appointment in the position in July 2000. David Topel, who was agriculture dean for more than a decade, stepped down from the position in early 2000. -30- Ames, Iowa 50011, (515) 294-4111 Published by: University Relations, online@iastate.edu Copyright © 1995-2000, Iowa State University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved.