Malerie Fancher receives the Outstanding Staff Global Engagement Award
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture celebrated the accomplishments of some of its top faculty, staff, researchers and Extension experts at UTIA’s annual awards luncheon. The 2026 ceremony was held on the UTIA campus in Knoxville on August 4. Many of the awards are gifts made possible by faculty, alumni and friends of the institute.
UTIA Senior Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice President Keith Carver hosted the celebration and praised the honorees for their devotion to the land-grant mission. “Our UTIA staff and faculty continue to overwhelm me with their enthusiasm and unparalleled expertise,” he said. “I am always in awe of their dedication to providing Real. Life. Solutions. to the people of Tennessee. These award winners represent the efforts and accomplishments this past year that will most benefit all Tennesseans and society – impacts that will have lasting benefits through teaching, research and Extension for years to come.”
Malerie Fancher, research specialist in plant sciences, received the Outstanding Staff Global Engagement Award by the UT Smith Center for International Sustainable Agriculture. The award recognizes individual staff members for their outstanding engagement in support of globalizing the university’s missions of teaching, research or outreach. This honor recognizes the contributions of individuals who make international programming more accessible to faculty, staff and students and/or who raise the visibility of international programming across the institute.
Fancher works at the UT Beef and Forage Center, where she trains international interns, including several from Brazil. She recently traveled to Algeria and Morocco and gave multiple presentations. Fancher helps play a key role in extending UTIA’s global engagement through digital platforms like YouTube and Spotify. A native of Newport, Tennessee, she also received the William T. Miles M.D. Memorial Award for Community Service as a member of the flood recovery team, helping her hometown and surrounding areas impacted by Hurricane Helene.
“Receiving the Outstanding Staff Global Engagement Award and Wiliam T. Miles M.D. Memorial Award for Community Service is both an incredible honor and a meaningful affirmation of the work I am passionate about,” Fancher said.
Fancher earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in animal science from the UT Hebert College of Agriculture. She has worked for UTIA for two and a half years.
The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is comprised of the Herbert College of Agriculture, UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch and UT Extension. Through its land-grant mission of teaching, research and outreach, the Institute touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. to Tennesseans and beyond. utia.tennessee.edu.