Contact: Sarah Buckleitner

STARKVILLE, Miss.—For outstanding service and achievements during the 2015-16 school year, Mississippi State’s Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine is honoring more than two dozen employees.

During a recent university ceremony sponsored by Regions Bank, the latest Regions-DAFVM Superior Faculty Awards winners went to:

—Richard Harkess, for teaching. He is a plant and soil sciences professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station;

—Donald Grebner, for research. He is a forestry professor in the College of Forest Resources and Forest and Wildlife Research Center;

—Bronson Strickland, for outreach. He is an associate professor of wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture with MSU Extension;

—Michael Barnes, for service. He is a sustainable bioproducts professor in the College of Forest Resources and Forest and Wildlife Research Center;

—Raja Reddy, for international service. He is a plant and soil sciences research professor with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

Additionally, the division presented inaugural Stellar Staff Awards to Jesse Morrison and Charlsie Halford. Morrison, a research associate in the plant and soil sciences department, was honored in the professional category; Halford, a College of Forest Resources administrative assistant, in the support staff category.

Other recognitions at the campus event were presented to:

—Marie Jeffries, who received the Doris and Louis Wise Support Staff Award in the professional/non-faculty category. She is the business manager in biochemistry, molecular biology, entomology and plant pathology department;

—Donna Morgan, receiving the Wise Award in the technical/paraprofessional category. She is a poultry science research technician;

—Jhonda Sowers, receiving the Wise Award in the secretarial/clerical category. She is an accounting assistant in the forestry department.

Members of the planning team for the division’s annual row-crops short course garnered the Rosalind and Rodney Foil Teamwork Award. They included Angus Catchot, Darrin Dodds, Trenton Irby, Kathy Johnson and Erick Larson.

More DAFVM faculty members were selections for new William M. White Special Project funding. They included:

—Casey Barickman and Stephen Meyers of the plant and soil sciences department at the North Mississippi Research and Experiment Center in Verona, for an investigation of sweet potato plant bed fertilization;

—Sylvia Byrd and Terezie Mosby of the food science, nutrition and health promotion department, for support of a dietetic internship program;

—Stephen Dicke and Jason Gordon of the forestry department, for urban tree-hazard strike team training;

—Lori Elmore-Staton and Julie Parker of the School of Human Sciences, to study effects of a therapeutic riding program on children with autism;

—Susan Seal, also of human sciences, for support of a specialized youth development curriculum; and

—Paul Tseng of plant and soil sciences, for development of molecular markers in a soybean breeding project.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.