Featured Member: Carrie Pickworth
NACTA Judging Contest Recap
#NACTA23 Tour Information
Upcoming Dates and Deadlines
New Members
Renew or Become a NACTA Member

NACTA Featured Member: Carrie Pickworth

Each month we sit down with a member to highlight their academic and professional career, and to see how they are making the best of their membership in NACTA. This month’s Featured Member is NACTA’s Educator Recognition Chair Carrie Pickworth.

Carrie Pickworth, PhD
Associate Professor and Co-Coordinator of Livestock and Poultry Management 
North Carolina State University

Tell me about your role as the NACTA Educator Recognition Chair this year. 
It’s a learning experience because NACTA is re-envisioning how all the committees organize and collaborate. It’s been fun jumping in and exploring how we recognize the wonderful educators in NACTA. As educators, we are here because we want to make a difference in the lives of our audiences. We have so many passionate educators that is hard to decide who gets awards and who doesn’t.

What noteworthy things have those passionate educators and students been doing? 
The quality of the packets that we received this year has been very high. We have several awards that are only given to a single person and this year we had to split hairs to determine who would receive them. On awards where there are 1500 points available the average score was within a ten-point spread. That is a tremendous accolade for each of those educators. The amount they are doing in engagement and innovation, what they are doing to make an impact on their campuses, for all of agriculture education, is commendable. They are coordinating study abroad and other experiential learning activities, assembling judging conference teams and doing community service with student groups. What teaching faculty do for a school and the lives of their students is huge.

What will you take away this experience and implement at your own campus? 
I would love to integrate more direct industry connections into my classroom as I’ve seen done from educators and students this year. It sounded amazing how they were able to get a company to provide them with a real-world case study and then present that to a board of directors. Those are some of the stand out packets that were super impactful.

For a student or educator looking to submit an award packet next year, what tips would you give? 

1. Make sure you’ve got a complete packet. Check the boxes that everything has been submitted, including your member dues.
2. Get a different perspective on your work even if it’s someone from outside your institution. Don’t be afraid to connect with a previous award winner to read through your packet and give you feedback. 
3. I’d like to encourage previous winners to brainstorm what our awards are and how we make the distribution so that they are meaningful and impactful for the winners. I would encourage membership to join a conversation to see where we want our awards to go moving forward.

What was your most memorable teaching moment? 
My summer youth camp. It’s my opportunity to bring in youth from so many diverse backgrounds. A few years ago, I had a young lady come to the camp and tour through the hog barns. As the students watched the informational videos, she challenged us question after question, and came away from the experience with a complete 180 in her opinion of the pork industry. She had an eye opening experience that changed her perception and will help her do the same moving forward.

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NACTA Judging Contest Recap

We thank everyone who participated in the 2023 NACTA Judging Conference!

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#NACTA23 Tour Information

One of the standout experiences of the annual NACTA meeting is always the lineup of local agricultural tours. This year we are excited to offer attendees six options sure to enrich, educate and illuminate on the local research, machinery, meat production and business that are the life force of the agricultural industry in the area. Each of these excursions will be offered on the afternoon of Thursday, June 22.

Learn More About #NACTA23

2023 Tours Lineup

Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks National Monument

One of the newest National Monuments in the US. Several places within the national park will be visited. Good hiking shoes, hat, sunscreen, and some water will be needed.

Vine and Wine Tour – Currently Sold Out

The Southwest area of New Mexico is known to produce some very fine wines. This tour will stop at several of the local wineries and hear how wines are produced in New Mexico.

Pecans and Beer Tour

Dona Ana county is one the largest counties in pecan production in the US. Participants will look at pecan production and processing and can sample some local brewery products.

Santa Teresa Livestock Crossing Tour

This is the largest land cattle crossing between Mexico and the United States. Over 3000 head of cattle are crossed each day. The tour will get to see actual crossing of cattle and processing on the US side. Hats, sunscreen, and water highly recommended.

Chile Tour

This tour will cover the famous "Hatch" Green Chili that has made the Mesilla Valley and village of Hatch famous for chili. Sites of chili production, research and processing.

Dairy Tour

New Mexico in the 9th largest State for milk production and first in production per cow. We have happy cows. This tour will visit a local dairy and some processing facilities.

Register Today!

Already Registered? Add Your Tour Here!*

*You will be asked to log in to your booking to add your selected tour.

Please note that additional fees may be incurred onsite.

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Upcoming Dates and Deadlines

Early May - #NACTA23 Poster & Oral Schedule Finalized

May 13 - Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive Day

May 24 - National Fruit and Vegetable Day

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New Members

NACTA had 82 new members since last month. We hope you join us in welcoming them!

Miguel Acevedo, FL - Southern	Alison Adams, FL - Southern	Matthew Ag. Department Chair, ID - Western
Clinton Alexander, KS - Kansas	Kayla Alward, VA - Eastern	Sabrina Amorim, VA - Eastern
Monte Anderson, OH - Eastern	Mark Anderson, TX - Southern	Calli Anibas, WI - Central
Jessica Benson, MS - Southern	Hannah Bilovesky, NM - Western	Landon Bilyeu, VA - Eastern
Brandon Bixler, PA - Eastern	Dea Bogdanic, IN - Eastern	Shane Bowyer, MN - Central
Macdonald Burgess, MT - Western	Miranda Buss, IL - Central	Leticia Campos, VA - Eastern
Anuradha Choudhary, NE - Central	Larry Couture, AB - Western	Garry Craddock, MS - Southern
Courtney Crist, MS - Southern	Paul Davidson, IL - Central	Francisco Dini-Andreote, PA - Eastern
Erin Drolet, VA - Eastern	Fisher EasleySmith, NM - Western	Ryan Elias, PA - Eastern
Karen Fink, MO - Central	Charles Francis, NE - Central	Juan Gavette, WY - Western
Matthew Gorton, OK - Southern	Ryan Goss, NM - Western	Parker Greene, NM - Western
Megan Greenwood, TX - Southern	Brittany Hart, VA - Eastern	Anthony Hartshorn, MT - Western
Nicolas Jelinski, MN - Central	Gaurav Jha, KS - Kansas	Daniel Johnson, PA - Eastern
Sydney Johnson, VA - Eastern	Melissa Jones, FL - Southern	Kayla Kester, VA - Eastern
Logan Layne, VA - Eastern	Justin Lewis, IL - Central	Mackenzie Lightfoot, NM - Western
Garrett Liles, CA - Western	Carolyn Lowry, PA - Eastern	Lena Luck, NE - Central
Alyssa Lyons, VA - Eastern	Martha Mamo, NE - Central	Donald Martha Mamo, NE - Central
Pamela Martinez, NM - Western	Russell McKeith, CA - Western	Sierra Meyers, OR - Western
Courtney Meyers, TX - Southern	Rebekah Miller, VA - Eastern	Reynilda (Nel) Monteza, OK - Southern
Amy Muise, NM - Western	Maria Navarro, GA - Southern	William Nelson, MN - Central
Spencer Patrick, VA - Eastern	Lana Petrie, VA - Eastern	Jonathan Phillips, NC - Southern
Armine Poghosyan, VA - Eastern	Carrie Reinhardt Adams, FL - Southern	Jake Reynolds, VA - Eastern
Kelly Rice, FL - Southern	Bruce Richards, UT - Western	Barbara Roqueto dos Reis, VA - Eastern
Matthew Rutter, SC - Southern	Kara Rutter, SC - Southern	D'arcy Ryder, TX - Southern
DenaCarol Seamon, NC - Southern	Jessica Spence, VA - Eastern	S. Patricia Stock, CA - Western
Leah Stroot, MN - Central	Sara Sutton, KS - Kansas	Dawn Tanner, MI - Eastern
Sven Verlinden, WV - Eastern	Nicole Volk, OH - Eastern	Lori Warren, FL - Southern
Isabel Whitehead, AR - Southern

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Renew or Become a New NACTA Member
NACTA is the largest professional development organization that focuses specifically on the scholarship of teaching and learning in agriculture, food and natural resources.

Need to renew your membership? Want to invite a colleague to join? Want to change your membership status? Visit the membership page here.

We appreciate your NACTA membership!