American Association of Agricultural Education Honors UTIA Faculty Member for Excellence and Impact
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Shelli Rampold, assistant professor of agricultural leadership, education and communications in the Herbert College of Agriculture within the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, has been named Outstanding Early Career Member by the American Association of Agricultural Education’s southern region.
The award recognizes faculty for excellence and impact in teaching, research, Extension and service within their first seven years. Rampold received the award at the southern region’s conference earlier this year.
Rampold, who joined the UTIA faculty in 2021, teaches three courses, specializing in agricultural communications for policy, crisis management and public relations. She chairs or participates in committees for numerous master’s students and receives excellent reviews from students. As a scholar, she has written more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and presented more than 50 times at conferences. She has more than $650,000 in completed projects and been awarded $34 million in external grant funding.
Like many UTIA faculty, Rampold has a joint appointment with UT Extension, and she has established a program to train producers, Extension agents, forestry and wildlife professionals and communities about crisis management in agriculture. Two Tennessee Master Producer programs offered through UT Extension include her crisis management curricula. She also helped develop a new internship program to bolster workforce development in the dairy industry.
Rampold was recently elected secretary of the association’s southern region and has served on committees for the past seven years. She is currently a UT Knoxville faculty senator and serves in several roles for UTIA and her department within Herbert.
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.