MACA Honors Educator of the Year, Ruth White Media Award Winner

The Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) recognized several people at its annual meeting September 10, which was held virtually, including the MACA Educator of the Year and the Ruth White Media Award winner.

Sam Markell

Dr. Samuel Markell

Advertisement

The MACA Educator of the Year Award was presented to Dr. Samuel Markell, North Dakota State University. The award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated significant contributions to American agriculture, especially in the MACA region. Also, the person has demonstrated evidence of consistency in educating the public on the value of production agriculture.

Top Articles
Best Agriculture Apps for 2024 (Update)

Dr. Markell is a professor and Extension plant pathologist at North Dakota State University. The goal of Sam’s program is to develop disease-management tools and strategies for broadleaf crops, including soybean, sunflower, dry edible bean, canola, pulse crops and flax. Sam works closely with many companies, grower organizations and university partners to deliver relevant and economically-viable disease management information to growers and the greater agricultural industry.

Together with his crew and students they conduct a large, applied field research program with high quality foliar and soil-borne trials that support the crop protection industry in North Dakota and Dr. Markell is known as a highly regarded authority on plant disease management.

Finally, Dr. Markell has been an excellent advisor and mentor to a number of high-quality graduate students that have subsequently become effective extension educators or crop protection industry scientists.

Pam Smith

Pamela Smith

The Ruth White Media Award is presented to an individual who’s demonstrated an evidence of consistent, objective, and accurate reporting on American agriculture and the myriad of issues involved in modern agriculture, including the CropLife industry. This year’s winner is Pamela Smith, Crops Technology Editor, DTN & Progressive Farmer.

Smith joined DTN/Progressive Farmer staff as Crops Technology Editor in 2012. She previously was seeds and technology editor for Farm Journal Media. An Illinois native, she started her career as a field editor for Prairie Farmer magazine after graduating with a degree in agriculture from the University of Illinois in 1977. She has also freelanced for a multitude of farm, food and travel magazines.

Pamela is a two-time winner of the American Agriculture Editor’s Association Writer of the Year honors. In 2009, she received the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism award for a series on soybean rust. She was the first agricultural journalist to receive that coveted prize, often referred to as the Pulitzer of business journalism. In 2011, she received a second Neal award as part of a team covering the legacy of passing down the farm through the generations. She has also been named the journalist of the year by the American Phytopathological Society (plant pathologists) and the Weed Science Society of America.

She is a member of the North Central Integrated Pest Management Center’s Advisory Panel, which is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture to promote and facilitate the adoption of effective integrated pest management strategies. She serves on the External Stakeholder Advisory Committee for the University of Illinois Crop Sciences Department. In 2019, she received the University of Illinois’ ACES Alumni Career Achievement Award.

Four generations of her family are currently involved on the farm where she grew up in west central Illinois.

0
Advertisement