THE EXCHANGE: Spring 2023

Many things are happening in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.

In February, we hosted our 24-hour Giving Day event. We had 82 donors contribute $13,433 to our funds. Of this total, 31 donors contributed $1,543 to our COINS program, which met Greg Estep's challenge. He generously provided an additional $2,500 in support for COINS. A big "Thank you!" to all who helped make our Giving Day event a success.

And speaking of Greg Estep, he and several other department nominees were recently recognized at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni awards celebration. Greg was honored to receive the CALS Alumni Career Achievement Award. In December 2022, Greg retired as managing director and CEO of Spices for Olam Food Ingredients. Dr. Dhamu Thamodaran, recently retired from Smithfield Foods, received recognition as Honorary Alumnus of the college. Over the years, he has consistently supported COINS and other department and college activities, including the Virginia Governor's Conference on Agricultural Trade. Lastly, the department co-nominated Dr. Catherine Woteki for the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Hall of Fame. While Cathie is not an alum of our department, she interacts with us frequently, notably serving as an advisor to our Data Science for the Public Good program. She has held many prestigious posts in academia, government, and industry, including a stint as Dean of the College of Agriculture at Iowa State. We are proud of each of these individuals and their accomplishments!

In current news, the department will soon host three finalists for our prestigious Kohl Chair. Each is a highly accomplished applied economist and has something unique and valuable to offer as a candidate for this prestigious position. Stay tuned, as we hope to have more updates soon.

Looking forward, we are making plans to celebrate with 42 of our undergraduate students and their families who will graduate in May. We will have a tent in the Ag Quad where, on Thursday, May 11th, we look forward to greeting our graduates and their family members, friends, and loved ones. AAEC faculty members and staff love graduation almost as much as our students. It is a visible, tangible indicator of our success in helping to educate and train a new cohort of future leaders.

Lastly, I continue to be actively involved with Virginia Tech's Access and Affordability initiative. While the parameters surrounding the initiative are still being determined, I am confident we will meet our mission of "doing more to support more deserving Hokies."

Go Hokies!
Matthew T. Holt
Professor and Department Head