Sugg names Cochran to lead Division of Agriculture

University of Arkansas System President B. Alan Sugg has appointed Dr. Mark J. Cochran as vice president for agriculture, head of the UA Division of Agriculture.

Cochran currently serves as Division of Agriculture associate vice president for research and director of the Arkansas Agriculture Experiment Station. He will begin as vice president on January 4, 2011.

“Mark has a wide array of experience in agriculture economics and research,” Sugg said. “His 28-year career at the university has given him an excellent understanding of the challenges and opportunities that face the Arkansas agriculture community. We are excited to welcome Mark as our new vice president.”

Cochran will be responsible for leading the university’s coordinated agriculture program, which includes the Cooperative Extension Service and the Agriculture Experiment Station. He will replace Milo J. Shult, who served 18 years in the position.

“I’m honored and humbled by this opportunity to lead the Division of Agriculture,” Cochran said. “I’m looking forward to working with our university faculty as well as the research and extension staff located across the state. Arkansas is blessed to have a very supportive community of agriculture stakeholders and I’m excited to partner with them to advance agriculture in our state.”

Before becoming associate vice president in 2006, Cochran served for 10 years as head of the Department of Agriculture and Agribusiness at the University of Arkansas.

From 1982 to 1996, he served as a faculty member in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at the university, where he taught and researched in production and natural resource economics.

Cochran earned his bachelor's degree in agricultural economics at New Mexico State University in 1974. He completed both his master's degree (1976) and his Ph.D. (1982) in agricultural economics with a minor in environmental and natural resource economics at Michigan State University.

With more than 1,700 employees, the Division of Agriculture has faculty and facilities located on five university campuses, at five regional research and extension centers, eight branch stations and other locations across the state. With a presence in all 75 counties, the Division of Agriculture has a unique mission to serve the statewide agriculture community in Arkansas.