Edgar Earns ACE Academics Award of Excellence

Photo Submitted

Leslie Edgar

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Leslie Edgar, an associate professor of agriculture communications in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas, has been selected to receive the 2014 Association of Communication Excellence Academics Award of Excellence.

The award exemplifies excellence in a specific special interest group, and she will be recognized at the ACE national conference in Portland, Ore., in June. Edgar’s award is for the academic special interest group, which is a combination of teaching, research and service.

“I am honored and blessed to receive this award,” said Edgar. “The success I have had in my academic position is largely due to excellent mentors, peers, and department and college support. The University of Arkansas has provided me an opportunity to learn, grow and thrive in our academic setting.”

The honor adds to a recent list of national awards for Edgar. She earned a National College and University Teaching Award for new teachers in Food and Agricultural Sciences from the United States Department of Agriculture and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities in the fall. Edgar, who teaches in the agricultural education, communications and technology department, was one of only two national recipients of the USDA-APLU new teacher award and only the fifth Bumpers College faculty member to be honored by this organization.

Last June, Edgar was recognized as the winner of the Teacher Fellow Award by the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture organization. She was also the recipient of the ACE Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences Award of Excellence for Research.

“I want to thank my colleagues for their guidance, mentorship and support, and my students for challenging me and always giving their best,” said Edgar. “This journey has been an awesome experience because of all of them.”

Edgar, who has been recognized for contributing to curriculum improvement, has earned 33 awards for teaching scholarly activities, and her research has had an impact regionally, nationally and internationally. She has authored or co-authored 29 refereed research articles with 21 focused on teaching or teaching innovations.

She has 127 peer-reviewed conference proceedings and poster presentations to her credit. Edgar has published eight non-refereed publications and has presented several local, regional, national and international professional development seminars. In 2008, she presented a seminar focused on strategies and techniques for strengthening research in the agricultural education and communications disciplines that was attended by more than 70 faculty researchers.

An ACE member since 2006, she has served as chair of ACE’s international special interest group and provided leadership in its mission to expand the international scope and impact of the organization. She is the current vice chair for the ACE research SIG and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Communications.

Edgar received her bachelor’s degree in animal science in 2000 and her master’s degree in agriculture systems, technology and education in 2002 from Utah State University. She earned her doctoral degree in agricultural leadership, education and communications from Texas A&M University in 2007.

She has served as co-adviser to the Bumpers College branch of the Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow since 2007, served on the university’s Academic Advising Council, chaired the Bumpers College Curriculum Committee and is director of the college’s office of international programs.