by Geitner Simmons | IANR Communications
Lincoln, Neb. —University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty members Kate Brooks and Rebecca Roston have been selected for the 19th annual class of the national LEAD21 program, designed to develop skills for leadership at land-grant universities.
Brooks is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics. Roston is the Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of biochemistry.
Ninety land-grant faculty and administrators from across the country will participate in the new LEAD21 class. The one-year core curriculum includes three sessions plus a concurrent individualized learning component.
Session I includes self-assessments and teaches leadership skills. Participants establish a personal development plan. In Session II, participants study skills for constructive team dynamics. Session III focuses on public leadership, policy development and federal legislation as well as managing change and resources.
Key goals for participants are communicating effectively; managing conflict; fostering collaboration; and leading change.
“Our land-grant systems continue to evolve to better address society’s needs,” said Cynda Clary, LEAD21 Board of Directors chair and associate dean for the Ferguson College of Agriculture at Oklahoma State University. “With each challenge and opportunity, prepared leaders are needed to step up and move us forward. LEAD21 helps build this leadership capacity within and across institutions.”
“With each successive class, we have seen the benefits of providing these leaders with opportunities to focus on their personal leadership skills, goals and style,” said Rochelle Sapp, LEAD21 program director and leadership development specialist in the Office of Learning and Organizational Development at the University of Georgia.
Brooks joined UNL’s Department of Agricultural Economics in 2013 after serving as a faculty member at West Texas A&M University. Her research interests include livestock production economics, agricultural marketing and risk management, price analysis and consumer food preferences.
The Western Agricultural Economics Association awarded Brooks its 2020 Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award.
She received her B.S. in agribusiness from Kansas State University, her M.S. in agribusiness from Illinois State University, and her Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Oklahoma State University.
Roston’s research focus includes biochemistry education, lipids/membrane biochemistry, molecular signaling, plant biochemistry, redox biology (study of biochemical processes involving reduction and oxidation) and the transdisciplinary biology field of omics.
Roston received an NSF CAREER Award in 2019 from the National Science Foundation. That same year, she received the ARD Junior Faculty for Excellence in Research Award from the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Agricultural Research Division. She also received the 2019 Junior Faculty Holling Family Teaching Excellence Award.
She received her B.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis.