FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Kate Shoulders, associate professor of agricultural education in the U of A's Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, has been honored with the national Educator Award by the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture.

She received the award at NACTA's annual conference at Purdue University in July.

Shoulders teaches several classes in the agricultural education curriculum in the Department of Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology. Her research areas include teaching methods in agricultural education and STEM integration, and she manages her Renewable Energy Analysis Project on sustainability.

NACTA is a professional society formed in 1955 focused on teaching and learning agriculture, and related disciplines, at the post-secondary level. 

Shoulders is among five current AECT professors to win NACTA’s Educator Award, joining Don Edgar, Leslie Edgar, Donna L. Graham and Don Johnson.

Last year, Shoulders earned Distinguished Manuscript, Outstanding Innovative Idea poster presentation and Outstanding Research poster presentation honors for three collaborative projects at the national American Association for Agricultural Education conference in Kansas City.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.