FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Graduate students from the U of A's Department of Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences were recognized for outstanding teaching at a national conference while assistant professor Jill Rucker was honored with an educator award.

Students and faculty made 15 oral and poster presentations at the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Conference at Iowa State University in June.

Graduate students Hailey Gates, Alisha Hayden, Lesley Smith and Isabel Whitehead participated along with University Professor Donna L. Graham, professor Don Johnson, Rucker, associate professor Kate Shoulders and professor Betsy Garrison, director of the School of Human Environmental Sciences.

Rucker received the NACTA Educator Award in recognition of "the very best in agricultural higher education." Shoulders earned the NACTA Educator Award in 2017, Graham in 2016 and Johnson in 2005.

Gates, Hayden and Whitehead earned NACTA Graduate Student Teaching Awards in honor of graduate students who excel as teachers in agricultural disciplines.

NACTA is a professional society focusing on the scholarship of teaching and learning in agriculture and related disciplines.

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.