Four Faculty Honored by American Association for Agricultural Education

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Three faculty members in the Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology Department at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture have received top honors from the American Association for Agricultural Education. A fourth faculty member in the department has been installed as the organization’s national president.

The faculty receiving recognition from the professional society are:

• Don Edgar, associate professor, who received the Outstanding Early Career Award;
• Don Johnson, professor, who received the Distinguished Researcher Award;
• George Wardlow, professor and department head, who was inducted as an AAAE Senior Fellow;
• Donna Graham, professor, who was installed as AAAE president for the current year at the society’s annual meeting May 19-23 in Snowbird, Utah.

Edgar and Johnson were the only faculty in the nation to receive their respective awards. No more than three faculty are selected each year as senior fellows.

Edgar’s teaching and research focuses on agricultural education in universities, post-secondary settings and schools and also on alternative energies based on performance and emissions characteristics. He serves as a co-adviser of the Collegiate FFA/4-H and Ag Mech Club.

Johnson's research specialties include evaluation of diesel engine performance and emissions with bio-based fuels. He also evaluates precision agriculture components and systems, develops physical models for teaching and learning technology and researches students' technology use. Johnson was also named an AAAE Senior Fellow in 2013.

As a 2014 Senior Fellow, Wardlow was recognized as being among AAAE members who have made exceptional and sustained contributions to the profession with 20 or more years of active service at the university level. His research has included an emphasis on agriculture as a context for teaching science and math, on effective strategies for teaching and learning and on alternative fuel technologies in agriculture. He works with school-based programs in agricultural sciences and technologies and with the Cooperative Extension Service in personnel development and advises the Ag Mech Club. He has served as a University Senate member and chair of the Bumpers College Promotion and Tenure Committee.

Graham is also an AAAE Senior Fellow, having been inducted in 2010. A former associate dean of Bumpers College, she has received the college’s Spitze Land Grant Faculty Award for Excellence, the Jack G. Justus Teaching Excellence Award and the Alumni Society Advising Award. She has also won the AAAE Southern Region Distinguished Teaching Award and serves as a member of the UA Teaching Academy. Her research interests are in extension education.