UT Institute of Agriculture Presents Top Faculty and Staff Awards for 2025
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The accomplishments of the faculty and staff of the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture were celebrated at an annual awards luncheon held on the UT Knoxville campus in the new Agriculture and Natural Resources Building on July 30. 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 luncheon and praised the honorees for their work. “The enthusiasm and expertise demonstrated by our UTIA faculty and staff is unparalleled,” he said. “I am always in awe of their dedication to providing real life solutions to the people of Tennessee. These well-deserved awards represent impacts and accomplishments that benefit Tennesseans and society now and for years to come.”
Kendhl Seabright, a research associate in the School of Natural Resources, is one of two winners of the UT AgResearch Dean’s Award for Outstanding Professional Staff. The award honors and acknowledges employees who have demonstrated the following: competence and critical thinking; cooperativeness and team building; professionalism and ethical behavior; initiative and dependability; and excellent communication skills. The other winner is Jessica McCord, a research associate in UT AgResearch administration.
Seabright, who has worked at UTIA for nine years, earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from UT Knoxville. After that, she was hired to work in the Center for Renewable Carbon, where she specializes in analytical chemistry. Her research focuses on finding phytosanitary treatments to prevent the spread of diseases, such as pine wilt disease and oak wilt fungus in logs for exporting, and chemical characterization of biomass sources that are transformed into renewable and high-valued carbon based materials.
“It is an honor to win the AgResearch Outstanding Professional Staff Award,” Seabright said. “I am thrilled to work with such an incredible team of scientists and students at the Center for Renewable Carbon. I graduated from UT and love working here at CRC, where I can continue learning every day.”
Seabright is well respected for her work in the lab. She was nominated to serve as a member of UTIA’s Lab Safety Committee, and she was the summer 2023 first-place winner in the Lab Safety Culture Awards coordinated by the UT Knoxville Department of Environmental Health and Safety to promote safety in UT labs.
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.