The University of Arkansas System president said Wednesday he is recommending Deacue Fields -- dean of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville -- as the next vice president for agriculture.
The vice president position serves as the top executive at the UA System's Division of Agriculture, which includes the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work. The division has offices in all 75 Arkansas counties and faculty on five UA System campuses.
Fields, 50, would be the first Black person to hold the position.
"Throughout our search process, Dr. Fields clearly demonstrated the background, temperament and leadership skills that we were looking for in the next vice president for agriculture," UA System President Donald Bobbitt said in a statement.
"He understands the importance of the land grant mission of the university, and I am looking forward to working with him to advance the education, research and extension efforts of the Division of Agriculture to benefit the citizens and communities across Arkansas that rely so heavily on agriculture for economic and cultural advancement."
Bobbitt led a national search that produced two finalists who are part of the UA System -- Fields and Jean-Francois Meullenet, the head of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
"While this was a difficult choice because of the high quality of both finalists, I am confident Dr. Fields is ready to unite faculty and staff around the goal of advancing the division to new heights in the years ahead," Bobbitt said in the statement.
Fields said in a statement: "Going through this process has reinvigorated my passion for agriculture and shed light on numerous opportunities for the division to cultivate partnerships and collaborate during this next chapter."
Bobbitt's recommendation will be forwarded to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees -- which is the governing body of the UA System -- for action. If approved, Fields would start July 1. He would replace Mark J. Cochran, who retired in September. Chuck Culver, the division's assistant vice president and director for external relations, has been working as interim vice president. Fields' annual salary in his new position would be $315,000.
Fields became Bumpers College dean in 2017. He came to UA from Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., where he was a professor and the chairman of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology since August 2013. He joined the Auburn faculty in 2002, becoming an associate professor in 2007, an appointment that also included extension duties.
Earlier, he was an assistant professor and director of small farm outreach at Florida A&M University, a public historically black university in Tallahassee, Fla. Fields was a graduate research fellow in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at Louisiana State University, which is based in Baton Rouge, La.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Southern University, a public historically black university in Baton Rouge, La., in 1993; a master's degree from the University of Missouri at Columbia, Mo., in 1995; and a doctorate from LSU in 2002 -- all in agricultural economics.