Lisa House will serve as interim chair of the UF/IFAS Department of Environmental Horticulture, starting Jan. 3.
House will be filling in for current Interim Chair Wagner Vendrame, also a professor of ornamental micropropagation and cryopreservation, who will return to being a full-time faculty member and associate chair of the department. Vendrame has been interim chair since early 2024.
“Dr. House has built bridges between FRE and so many UF/IFAS departments, so she’s a natural choice to temporarily lead a second department,” said Scott Angle, UF senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources and leader of UF/IFAS. “She has proven a mentor for a wave of talented early-career faculty she’s carefully recruited. She has traveled the state to support faculty located at research and education centers. And she’s an active partner with industry in aligning her academic department’s work with real-world needs.”
House, currently a professor and chair of the Department of Food and Resource Economics and co-director of the Florida Agricultural Market Research Center, will continue in her current work while taking on this new leadership role.
“I’m grateful to take on this exciting opportunity to assist a strong department as they search for their permanent leader,” House said. “I’m looking forward to supporting faculty, whose important mission focuses on improving people’s lives and protecting the environment through their teaching, research and Extension programs.”
“I want to extend a tremendous ‘thank you’ to Dr. Vendrame for his service as interim chair, and I look forward to working with him during this transition,” House said.
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ABOUT UF/IFAS
The mission of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is to develop knowledge relevant to agricultural, human and natural resources and to make that knowledge available to sustain and enhance the quality of human life. With more than a dozen research facilities, 67 county Extension offices, and award-winning students and faculty in the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UF/IFAS brings science-based solutions to the state’s agricultural and natural resources industries, and all Florida residents.
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