Iowa State University
8-29-96

Contacts:
Stan Johnson, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, (515) 294-3133
John Kozak, Provost, (515) 294-0070
Steve Jones, News Service, (515) 294-4778

JOHNSON, ISU ECONOMIST, NAMED VICE PROVOST FOR EXTENSION

AMES, Iowa -- Stanley Johnson, director of Iowa State University's Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, has been named the university's vice provost for extension.

"This is a very exciting opportunity to help Iowa State University be better connected to the people of Iowa and to others in the United States and around the world," Johnson said.

Johnson said extension, with its programs in agriculture, business, engineering, family and consumer sciences and other areas, can contribute a great deal to the quality of life in Iowa.

The vice provost for extension plays a major role in coordinating and administering ISU's outreach effort, working closely with the provost, vice provost for research and the deans of the eight colleges to integrate that effort with teaching and research programs.

"Stan Johnson is an outstanding choice to lead Iowa State University Extension into the 21st century," said ISU President Martin Jischke. "He is an energetic, innovative and visionary leader, and he has been very successful nationally and internationally in the areas of agricultural policy and development, which are extremely important to Iowa's future."

"Dr. Stanley Johnson emerged as the candidate of choice in the search for a vice provost for extension," said John Kozak, ISU provost. "His national, and indeed, international, experience in understanding and facilitating agricultural and rural development were recognized and applauded by the main constituencies with which he interacted during his interview."

Kozak added that Johnson's impressive contributions to the scholarship in his field of agricultural economics have been recognized by Iowa State University in his being named C.F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture and by several honorary degrees from other institutions.

The vice provost vacancy was created when Robert Anderson resigned to teach in ISU's electrical and computer engineering department.

A professor of economics, Johnson has directed the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development since 1985. He also has served, since 1984, as executive director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, an ISU-University of Missouri collaboration that studies the economic inter- relationships of the domestic and foreign food and agricultural industries.

Since 1989, Johnson has chaired the Institute for Policy Reform, a policy research institute based in Washington, D.C. Johnson is an academician in the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, a lifetime honor that is held by only a few non-Russians.

Prior to joining Iowa State, Johnson was an economics professor at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He also held visiting professorships at several other universities, including the University of California-Berkeley and the University of California-Davis. Johnson received a B.A. from Western Illinois University, Macomb, in 1961, an M.S. from Texas Technological College, Lubbock, in 1962 and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, College Station, in 1966. All degrees are in agricultural economics.

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