Women in Agriculture

Congratulations are in order for UGA Griffin student, Darian Adams, for being named the recipient of the Marie Fort Garden Club Scholarship for 2021. The local club presents the $1,000 scholarship annually to a UGA Griffin undergraduate student in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES). Adams was awarded the scholarship in October at a club meeting.

“Thank you so much,” said Adams to the club. “This scholarship will help me reach my career goals by helping fund my tuition and books. Getting a degree is my top priority and this scholarship will help tremendously.”

Minji Hur has been named the recipient of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Science (CAES) Student Scholarship. 

“This award recognizes students who distinguish themselves through outstanding academic achievement. We are very pleased that a graduate student from the Griffin campus is the recipient of this year’s scholarship, and that this scholarship will help Ms. Hur achieve her academic goals at the University of Georgia,” said David Buntin, Interim Assistant Provost and Griffin Campus Director. 

Hur is a doctoral student in the Center for Food Safety located at UGA Griffin under its Director, Dr. Francisco Diez-Gonzalez. 

“Minji has recently joined our research group as a Ph.D. student and we are very proud that she has received this award. This honor is a deserving recognition of her academic accomplishments,” said Diez-Gonzalez. 

Hur, who is a native of Seoul, South Korea, completed her bachelor’s degree in food science and biotechnology at Gachon University. 

During her senior year, she obtained an internship at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She said this research experience with Dr. Dumitru Macarisin and Dr. Yi Chen inspired her to continue her education. 

When her internship was complete, she enrolled at UGA where she completed her master’s in food science and technology before subsequently moving into the doctoral program in January of this year. 

Ellen Bauske is a boundary spanner — she’s known as a person who brings people and organizations together on national, regional and local levels.

It’s one of the many reasons she received the American Society of Horticultural Science’s 2020 Extension Educator of the Year Award, which recognizes an educator who has made an outstanding contribution to extension education in horticulture for more than 10 years.

Bauske serves as a program coordinator for the University of Georgia Center for Urban Agriculture in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. She has helped develop innovative programming in a variety of disciplines, including integrated pest management, water, consumer horticulture, Master Gardener Extension Volunteer training, community gardens, landscape and tree care worker safety.

"Ellen Bauske is a doer,” said Dan Suiter, who is chair of the center’s faculty advisory committee. “Her formal training is in plant pathology, but she has been very adaptable in the many years she's been with the Center for Urban Agriculture. She, like no one I've known, can get people to move as a group in the direction of accomplishment. It's a rare skill."

Harald Scherm, head of the Department of Plant Pathology, agrees. “Ellen has consistently reinvented herself and her Extension programming during the past 15 years,” he said. “She has been remarkably responsive to emerging needs and opportunities.”

More than 150 women and men convened Wednesday on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Georgia, and at satellite sites in Griffin and Tifton, Georgia, for the inaugural Women in Agriculture Leadership Initiative Luncheon. Following on the heels of the UGA-led Southern Region Women’s Agricultural Leadership Summit in February, the lunch was the first in a series of events aimed at building a stronger professional network for women working in agriculture.

“I was very excited about the great turnout we had, as well as the great diversity of backgrounds, colleges and interests represented at the inaugural leadership luncheon,” said College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) Associate Dean for Extension Laura Perry Johnson. “I was glad to see that this is a topic that so many people are interested in discussing.”

Women make up 30 percent of the nation’s farmers and almost half of employees in agricultural firms, but they are still underrepresented in terms of farm ownership and on the boards of companies and agricultural advocacy groups.

As part of February’s summit, delegations from 13 Southern states came together to produce a list of recommendations meant to help women embrace leadership roles in agriculture.