FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – John Paul Pendergrass and Courtney Meyers have been named 2016-17 distinguished alumni of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

Pendergrass is the Outstanding Alumnus and will present the commencement address to Bumpers College graduates at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, May 13, in Barnhill Arena. Meyers is the Bumpers College Alumni Society’s Outstanding Young Alumna and is also addressing graduates at commencement.

Pendergrass and Meyers will also be honored at a luncheon on May 12.

Pendergrass is co-owner of Pendergrass Cattle Co. in Charleston, one of the top beef herd stocker and feeder cattle operations in Arkansas. A sixth-generation cattle rancher, he runs the family business with his father, John Frank Pendergrass. Since 2014, Pendergrass has been the lead farmer representing Arkansas on the Farm Journal Foundation’s Farm Team for Farmers Feeding the World program. The network of farmers interacts with policy makers on global hunger issues and the role of modern agricultural development. He graduated from Bumpers College’s Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture in 1977.

Meyers has been an associate professor of agricultural communications at Texas Tech University since 2014 after joining the faculty as assistant professor in 2008. In 2015, she received the USDA New Teacher Award and Texas Tech’s Mid-Career Faculty Award. Before TTU, she was a graduate research and teaching assistant at the U of A and the University of Florida, and a communications specialist with the International Grains Program at Kansas State University. Meyers earned her master’s degree in agricultural and extension education from the U of A in 2005.

“Bumpers College is proud to announce John Paul and Courtney as distinguished alumni for 2017,” said interim Dean Lona Robertson. “John Paul is without question one of the agricultural leaders in the state with a long track record of success, both commercially and in the community. Courtney has quickly established herself as a rising educator, and is sharing her Bumpers College education with our current generation of students as she inspires and prepares them for their careers. We’re very proud of both of them and looking forward to having them on campus.”

JOHN PAUL PENDERGRASS

In 2000, Pendergrass was named Man of the Year by the U of A’s Alpha Iota chapter of Alpha Gamma Rho, a professional and social agriculture fraternity. In 2008, Pendergrass Cattle Co. won the Backgrounding Division and received the National Stocker Operation Award from Beef magazine. The award honors the nation’s top practitioners in categories of summer grazing, fall/winter forage and backgrounder/drylot.

In 2014, he served as a panelist at the Farm Journal Foundation Forum in Washington, D.C. In 2006, he was a panelist at the Beef Cattle Marketing – Globally, Nationally and Locally symposium hosted by Bumpers College’s Department of Animal Science. In 2015, he was a panelist on agricultural policy and the effects of global food security at the Preparing for 21st Century Policy Choices event hosted by Bumpers College’s Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, and Farm Journal Foundation.

Pendergrass and his wife Cissie are parents of Eric and Grace. Eric earned his bachelor’s degree in agriculture (2003) and two law degrees from the U of A, and is an attorney in Fort Smith. Grace earned a bachelor’s degree in human environmental sciences (2006) and a master’s degree in education from the U of A, and a master’s in library science from Texas Women’s University. She is a middle school teacher.  

COURTNEY MEYERS 

Meyers is on the faculty in Texas Tech’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Her honors include the Association for Communication Excellence’s Research Special Interest Group Award of Excellence (2013, 2015), the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities Excellence in Teaching Award (2015), and the Non-Land Grant Agriculture and Renewable Resources Universities Distinguished Young Educator Award (2013). Texas Tech has recognized her with the President’s Excellence in Teaching Award (2014) and Teaching, Learning and Professional Development Center Faculty Spotlight Award (2013).

Her U of A master’s thesis resulted in a published manuscript on genetically modified food labeling selected Research Article of the Year by the Journal of Applied Communications in 2006. While at the U of A, she was named Outstanding Graduate Student by the Department of Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology, and Bumpers College’s Outstanding Master’s Scholar in 2005.

A native of Kansas, Meyers has leadership positions with the Association for Communication Excellence and the American Association for Agricultural Education. She is also a member of Texas Tech’s Teaching Academy.

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.