News

As the spring harvest approached, members of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association knew they would need assistance to provide important information about COVID-19 safety measures and food handling protocols to workers who make up the majority of the seasonal agricultural workforce, many of whom are native Spanish speakers.

University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and Cooperative Extension faculty responded quickly by producing a COVID-19 safety video in Spanish that could be incorporated into farm employee trainings. 

UGA Extension Southwest District Director Andrea Scarrow, Tift County Extension Agent Justin Hand, and Assistant Professor Laurel Dunn in the UGA Department of Food Science and Technology were a part of the group that spearheaded the effort to quickly produce and distribute the video resources to producers throughout the state.

Bill Brim, CEO of Lewis Taylor Farms in Tift County, previously worked with UGA Extension to develop financial education materials in Spanish for temporary workers at the farm, so he knew who to ask when the need for COVID-19 educational materials arose, Scarrow said.

Each year the Iris Chapter of ABWA (American Business Women’s Association) presents a scholarship to a student who is pursuing a degree in business or a business-related field on the University of Georgia Griffin Campus. This year the scholarship was open to students in the Terry College of Business, those pursing a degree in Agribusiness or in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. The 2020 recipient of the $750 scholarship is Melissa Slaughter, who is currently pursuing a degree in Consumer Economics from the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Slaughter stated she was shocked to find out she was this years’ recipient, but she is very grateful for having been selected.

“I am beyond honored. Working, living, and being a part of Spalding County has enhanced my life. I am very thankful all the opportunities God has blessed me with. If you believe then you will achieve!”

Back in January when she heard COVID-19 had been identified, Malak Esseili stopped taking her children along on trips to the grocery store. She also called her sisters and told them to begin wearing infinity scarfs they could easily use as makeshift masks while in public.

As an assistant professor of food virology at the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety in Griffin, Esseili has been focused on studying the microbial ecology of human viral pathogens (such as human noroviruses), and now her work includes the emerging viral pathogen SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).

Esseili came to UGA in March 2019 after eight years with the Food Animal Health Research Program at The Ohio State University (OSU) where she studied with Qiuhong Wang and OSU Distinguished Research Professor Linda Saif, who has conducted research on coronaviruses and other zoonotic viruses for decades.

While COVID-19 is a new — or novel — virus, coronaviruses are not new. Named for the crown-like spikes on their surface, human coronaviruses were first identified in the late 1960s. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are seven coronaviruses that can infect humans. They include Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV and the new SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

There are also coronaviruses that affect animals, including bovines, poultry, cats, dogs and other animals.

Over the past several years, many industries have been challenged with the task of learning how to engage a younger audience in order to rebuild their aging workforce. The financial services industry is no stranger to this issue and has been worried by the fact that if nothing changes not only will there be insufficient young talent to replace those who will soon retire, but there is also a lack of diversity throughout the profession. However, thanks to an event at UGA Griffin, the industry is working to change its future.

UGA’s Family and Consumer Sciences hosted the second annual Diversity and Inclusion Financial Planning Symposium on February 28 on the UGA Griffin Campus, with more than 84 participants including seven higher education institutions, 19 community and industry partners and four surrounding area high schools. The event was made possible due to a grant awarded from Institutional Diversity at UGA and aimed to educate those in attendance about a profession with an annual median pay of $88,890 through keynote sessions, a career pathway panel and a speed networking session.  

This is a half-day program where college and high school students, faculty, career influencers, and leaders in the financial planning industry come together to exchange ideas, network and discuss ways to promote overall diversity in the financial planning field.

Goals

    1. To raise awareness of the demand for a diverse and capable financial planning workforce
    2. To expose students from diverse backgrounds to the importance of mentors when choosing careers in financial planning 

What's in it for students?
    -Free registration
    -Learn about a profession with a $88,890 annual median pay and a 7% projected growth rate
    -Watch a career pathway panel 
    -Win prizes
    -Speed network with mentors  

University of Georgia food science graduate student Ikechukwu “Ike” Oguadinma, 27, has been awarded the Food Safety Auditing Scholarship from the Food Marketing Institute Foundation in partnership with the Safe Quality Food Institute.

Oguadinma is one of 15 students who received the award at the SQF International Conference held last October in San Antonio, Texas. Each student received a $3,000 scholarship and an all-expense-paid trip to attend the conference with more than 850 food safety professionals.

A native of Nigeria, Oguadinma came to the U.S. to study food science after earning an undergraduate degree in biochemistry. He selected UGA after researching leading food science teaching and research programs in the U.S.

“I discovered that UGA has one of the best programs in food science in the country, boasting of esteemed food-safety researchers such as (Distinguished Research Professor) Dr. (Larry) Beuchat and (Regents Professor) Dr. (Michael) Doyle. These are very remarkable people and I knew to work with them and current outstanding faculty in the UGA food science department would teach me a lot and enable me to grow in my career,” he said.

Bochra Bahri has joined the University of Georgia as an assistant professor of plant pathology. Based on the UGA Griffin campus, Bahri will conduct research on turfgrass and forage diseases that affect growers in Georgia, the nation and around the world.

A native of Tunisia, Bahri earned a degree in engineering from the National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia. She traveled to Paris for graduate school, completing a master’s degree in plant protection and environment from AgroParisTech and a doctorate at the University of Paris-Sud XI.

“For my PhD, I worked on wheat yellow rust disease and studied the pathogen structure in the Mediterranean area and tried to understand how the pathogen evolved according to the climate and its host,” she said. 

While many American students would consider studying in Paris a dream opportunity, Bahri was accustomed to Paris because she visited often to see family there. Her dream opportunity came in April 2006 when UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences plant genetics Professor Katrien Devos hired her for a position in her laboratory in Athens, Georgia.

While working on a six-month post-doctoral position at the Aarhus University in Denmark, Bahri applied for a position in Devos’ laboratory on the UGA campus in Athens.

Saturday November 16th 2019 will mark the Inaugural Dawg Dash 5K and 1-mile Fun Run/Walk.  

Open to everyone and all fitness levels are welcome.

Proceeds will benefit the Griffin-Spalding County Way and the University of Georgia Griffin Campus.

Medals awarded for 1st and 2nd Place Overall as well as 1st Place in each age category.

First 200 participants to pre-register will receive a T-shirt

Pre-Registration - $20.00 per run/walker (Open until November 13th)

Same-day registration - $25.00 per run/walker 

Register online: https://dawgdash2019.eventbrite.com

If you would like a paper registration form or would like to volunteer, please contact Beth Horne @ bhorne@uga.edu or call 770-228-7214

Download the 2019 Dawg Dash flyer here

We are pleased to announce that Dr. G. David Buntin, a dedicated member of the UGA faculty, has been named Interim Assistant Provost and Campus Director at the UGA Griffin campus, effective Nov. 1. He succeeds Dr. Lew Hunnicutt, who has been named the president of Nash Community College in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.  Dr. Hunnicutt has made several contributions to the UGA Griffin campus, including increasing graduate enrollment, elevating private support, and strengthening partnerships with the local community. I hope that you will join us in thanking him for his leadership at UGA-Griffin and congratulating him on his new leadership role.  Dr. Buntin is a professor of entomology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and his research and extension activities focus on integrated pest management. He has been an active member of several committees at both the college and university level, and we appreciate his willingness to lead UGA-Griffin during this transition period.

University of Georgia Department of Entomology Professor Dan Suiter has been named the chair of the UGA Center for Urban Agriculture Faculty Advisory Committee.

Suiter’s appointment will enhance the programming aspect of the center, according to Laura Perry Johnson, associate dean for UGA Cooperative Extension in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES). Suiter will work closely with center Director Sheldon Hammond, who will continue to oversee the business and personnel administration functions of the center.

Based on the UGA Griffin campus, the Center for Urban Agriculture supports UGA Extension’s urban programs by providing county agent training programs, tools and resources; communicating the latest research-based urban agriculture advice through newsletters, articles, alerts, publications, videos and social media; organizing new initiatives; collaborating on interdisciplinary projects and research; advancing and updating current program training materials; and administering multiyear programs and projects.

“Our state continues to have population growth and most of that is in the nine largest counties in Georgia. Issues and problems associated with this urban growth come in many forms and cross many disciplines and departments,” Perry Johnson said. “Dan will work to build diverse teams around urban issues and coordinate programming efforts related to urban programs and projects.”