Seeds : Newsletter for Alumni of the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech : Fall 2008

Greetings all alumni and friends! I hope that you all had a bountiful summer and that you are enjoying this beautiful fall. Jerzy Nowak, former Head of our department, has moved on to be the Director of the new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention (CPSVP). We wish Dr. Nowak all the best in this exciting new endeavor. He is a dear friend to our department, and we look forward to collaborating with him in his new mission. With Dr. Nowak's departure, Dean Sharron Quisenberry appointed me as Interim Department Head as of July 1 of this year. I feel truly honored to be named to this position. I have just completed my 15th year as a faculty member in the department and look forward to serving in my new position. During the past 15 years, I have taught Plant Propagation, Landscape Establishment and Maintenance, Nursery Crops, Urban Horticulture, Internship Seminar, and Landscape Practicum classes. Before graduate school (M.S. at University of Florida and Ph.D. at Cornell University), I spent two years at Campbell's Nursery in Franklin, Virginia, and 10 years with Jacksonville Landscape Co. in Jacksonville, Florida.