J. Scott Angle: Developing the Talent the Industry Needs
My congratulations on the good judgment FNGLA membership has demonstrated in electing a Gator as your president. Whatever else you know about President Jennifer Parrish, please know that she is a graduate of the UF/IFAS College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), in Environmental Horticulture.
Actually, she’s a double Gator of a sort. Parrish is an alumna of the UF/IFAS Wedgworth Leadership Institute, a two-year program to develop the leaders we need to ensure a strong future for the Florida agriculture and natural resources industry. She continues our streak of Wedgworth graduates ascending to the FNGLA presidency, with Marcella Lucio-Chinchilla and Phillip Hisey serving before her.
A highlight of the convention for me was that Jennifer talked in her incoming president’s speech about how UF/IFAS had been part of her life since childhood. She recalled that when she was a child, her parents would drag her to the Broward County Extension Office for FNGLA Broward chapter meetings. It seems fitting that the girl grew into a professional who serves the Lake County Extension Office as an advisory board member.
We at UF, too, have a new president. It would be great for our organizations if someday the two new presidents can meet, whether in Gainesville or closer to where Jennifer lives and works in Central Florida.
As always, we’ll be in touch regularly with Jennifer and FNGLA leadership throughout her presidency. I have invited her up to campus for a report on the successful transition of former Environmental Horticulture faculty into our Department of Horticultural Sciences and other departments.
But I’ll also want to hear more about her history as an undergraduate in the UF/IFAS Department of Environmental Horticulture. About how her parents, too, were Environmental Hort alumni. About how UF/IFAS legend Dr. Tom Yeager advised her parents on water use and BMPs. And about how Dr. Terill Nell, who chaired the department from 1991 to 2012, pushed students to pursue internships, which inspired Jennifer to intern with Nancy McDonald at NGM Pro.
The internship, the CALS education, and speaking to Agri-Starts folks at the booth next to her parents at TPIE helped prepare her for a job at Agri-Starts after graduation. That’s where I first met Jennifer. I remember walking the facility with her as part of a touring group and meeting a smart, forward-thinking alumna.
I reconnected with her a few months ago in Apopka again. UF/IFAS needed industry representation as it met with a team from another academic institution we hope to partner with. She delivered a valuable perspective informed by her current professional role at Farm Credit of Central Florida.
She has also established a strong connection with Dr. Kirsten Pelz-Stelinski, director of the UF/IFAS Mid-Florida Research and Education Center in Apopka, through their engagement with the FNGLA Action Chapter.
Jennifer is a great example of the virtuous circle between UF/IFAS and FNGLA in developing the talent the industry needs. Students get knowledge in the greenhouse and awareness of opportunities from UF/IFAS. Industry offers our students opportunities such as internships. Those students become interns become employees become industry leaders. UF/IFAS helps develop those leaders at CALS, at Wedgworth and at special gatherings. Those leaders then support UF/IFAS to connect more students with more opportunities.
We look forward to Jennifer coming “home” to Gainesville this year to visit us when she visits the Frontrunners Chapter again. We also look forward to attending the convention she’ll lead next year. Best of luck, Jennifer, in the year to come.
J. Scott Angle is the University of Florida’s Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources and leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).
