UF/IFAS Guest Column: Brooke Moffis – The Learning Educator

For Brooke Moffis, teaching and learning are a never-ending cycle turning throughout her life and career.  

As a commercial horticulture Extension agent in Lake County, she teaches green industry professionals about Florida-friendly landscaping and sustainable pest management. She conducts site visits to help growers, landscapers, and HOA officials troubleshoot their plant issues. She leads integrated pest management workshops to train landscape and nursery professionals to identify pests and diseases before they spread. About once a month, she drives down to the UF/IFAS Mid-Florida Research and Education Center in Apopka to help growers diagnose what’s wrong with their plants. Right now, she’s getting ready for the Knowledge College at FNGLA’s Landscape Show in August.

It's her daily dedication to teaching that led Brooke to receive this year’s FNGLA Outstanding Educator Award. Billy Butterfield, owner of AmeriScapes Landscape Management Services and tissue-culture pioneer Van Donnan, Ph.D., nominated her for the award.

At the same time, Brooke is constantly learning. She is pursuing her Ph.D. in interdisciplinary ecology at UF. She conducts research on reducing water use in landscapes through soil amendments and incorporating wildflowers and other plants into landscaping. She’s currently part of a research team working with Tavistock Development to create Sunbridge, a central Florida community that will be the first “naturehood”, blending ecological landscaping with native plants, water conservation, amended soils, and pollinator gardens.

Brooke’s research informs her teaching and vice versa, an endless cycle of growth. Combining research and study with her daily workload is something Brooke has long been used to. At the beginning of her career, while building demonstration gardens and wrangling Master Gardener volunteers all day as a residential horticulture agent in Sumter County, at night she studied to get her master's in Entomology and Nematology from UF.

Originally from Tennessee, Brooke received her bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Tennessee Tech 2002. An internship at Disney’s EPCOT brought her to Florida, where she learned to scout for pests and use sustainable practices to make sure the crops in the Living with the Land exhibit were always “show ready.” In addition to learning how to be a first-rate pest scout, she discovered that she loved leading tours and teaching visitors about the science that went into growing plants. During one of these tours, she met Jennifer Pelham, now Extension Director in Martin County, who told her about her career working in urban horticulture. A few months later, Brooke was taking a nursery IPM scout training class taught by Juanita Popenoe, Ph.D., then Lake County’s commercial horticulture agent. This led her to a 19-year career in Extension; she now teaches the same scouting class as her one-time mentor.

She made a switch from residential to commercial horticulture about five years ago because she wanted to make a bigger impact. “I’m a very purpose-driven person,” she says. “By working with growers, nurseries and landscapers, I saw an opportunity to do more than react to changes in our environment. I wanted to help make changes for the better.”  

The support and camaraderie she shares with stakeholders and colleagues has made receiving FNGLA's Outstanding Educator Award particularly gratifying, she adds.

By being a lifelong learner and a teacher, Brooke embodies the chief principle of Extension, which is to always be learning—from our stakeholders, from the environment, from scientific research—and to share that knowledge to make life better for all of us.

Congratulations, Brooke!

Andra Johnson, Ph.D., is the Dean for UF/IFAS Extension and the Director of the Florida Cooperative Extension Service.