Rob Gilbert, Ph.D., served as interim senior vice president of agriculture and natural resources until Sept. 6. | Image Courtesy UF/IFAS
Scott Angle, Ph.D., returned to lead UF/IFAS after 14 months as UF provost. | Image Courtesy UF/IFAS
Guest Column: A Shared Commitment to Service
September 6, 2024
We hope that for you, UF/IFAS isn’t the man or woman in the corner office but the frontline people who work day after day to keep you profitable.
We know it’s the county Extension horticulture agent who delivers the science you need to stay profitable today. Or the researcher running a trial in your greenhouse to find solutions you’ll need in coming years. Or the professor who equips your children and future employees with knowledge and skills to keep your operation profitable a generation from now.
The two of us agree: We work for you. Our job is to help the green industry stay profitable. We do that by supporting the county agent, the researcher and the teacher. The largest green industry in the nation deserves the support of the best land-grant agriculture and natural resources operation in the nation. It’s what both of us strive for.
For the past 14 months, Rob has led UF/IFAS as interim senior vice president while Scott served as UF’s provost.
In that time, Rob:
- Attended two FNGLA conventions
- Recorded an episode of the FNGLA Plant People Podcast
- Successfully nominated an FNGLA educator of the year
- Went to Homestead and personally congratulated the UF/IFAS faculty member you recognized with your FNGLA Friend of the Industry Award
- Appointed an interim chair of Environmental Horticulture on Jan. 1 and asked him immediately to get to Fort Lauderdale to attend TPIE
- Visited with four FNGLA presidents, present and past, at the Urban Landscape Summit on campus in Gainesville hosted by the UF/IFAS Center for Land Use Efficiency
Scott resumed his role as leader of UF/IFAS on Sept. 6 and intends to be equally engaged with FNGLA.
Because we share a common priority to serve stakeholders such as FNGLA members, we expect you won’t notice any difference in service – unless you currently aren’t being served. Then we do intend to see what UF/IFAS can do to meet your needs.
It’s a commitment we’ve shared since Scott’s arrival in July 2020. Rob’s record of leadership of UF/IFAS over the past 14 months has demonstrated that this commitment from the senior vice president persists even as the incumbent changes.
Neither of us are corner-office administrators. We both like to get out to industry gatherings, and we want to meet as many of you as we can. We’ve both put thousands of miles on the road to meet producers from the Alabama border to Homestead.
Another big part of our job is to listen.
Scott plans to resume the barnstorming that brought him to all 67 counties in his first three years in Florida. Rob will remain in senior UF/IFAS leadership and continue to support our statewide programs, hear your suggestions, and thank you for beautifying Florida, the nation and the world.
We work for you. We’ll both do all we can to keep the county agent, the researcher and the teacher working for you, too.
Rob Gilbert served as interim senior vice president of agriculture and natural resources until Sept. 6. Scott Angle returned to lead UF/IFAS after 14 months as UF provost.
