April - Poultry Science Association

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two years. He has served as secretary–
treasurer for PSA for the past year.
Second Vice President:
Sheila Purdum
University of Nebraska
Sheila E. Purdum is a professor of
animal science and extension poultry
specialist in the Animal Science Department
at the University of Nebraska.
Purdum has been employed by the
University of Nebraska since 1992 as
an extension poultry specialist and currently
has a three-way appointment,
conducting applied poultry nutrition
research, providing state leadership
for all poultry extension activities, and
teaching an Advanced Animal Nutrition
class. Recently, Purdum was interim
department head for Animal Science
from August 2007 to August 2009.
Past leadership responsibilities in PSA
include being a director from 1998 to
2000, section editor for the Metabolism
and Nutrition section of Poultry Science
from 1999 to 2005, and session chair
at the 1996 meetings. Purdum was
awarded the AFIA Nutrition Research
Award for Poultry Science in 2000 and
the Helene Cecil Leadership Award in
2007. Purdum has been a member of
PSA since 1982. “I am sincerely interested
in the future of poultry science
in an era of rapid change in the use
and application of technology. Some
of the coming challenges include how
to keep our publications current and
in sound economic management with
a dwindling base of researchers in the
United States and in light of external
pressures such as Open Access. Other
challenges include a growing dichotomy
in the poultry sector, with needs ranging
from backyard production education
to intense, large-scale international and
national sector education and research
needs. My experiences with PSA as well
as my strong experience in extension
and administration add to my unique
perspective as PSA addresses these
challenges. My hopes and aspirations
for the future of PSA are bright and
strong as we face an ever-changing
global agriculture and poultry economy.”
Second Vice President:
Michael O. Smith
University of Tennessee
Mike Smith is a professor in the
Department of Animal Science at the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He
has been an active member of PSA
since 1984, serving in many capacities.
He was a member of the PSA board of
directors from 2002 to 2005, served as
session chair for both the Nutrition section
and the Environment and Management
section. He served as a member
and then chair of the Pfizer Extension
Award Committee and the Maple Leaf
Duck Award Committee. He also served
on the PSA Long Range Planning Committee
and on the PSA Hatchery. Smith
is a member of the World’s Poultry Science
Association and served for many
years on the College Student Career
Program Advisory Committee of the US
Poultry & Egg Association. He is on the
editorial/review board of The Journal of
Applied Poultry Research.
A native of Jamaica, Smith holds
a Diploma in Agriculture from The
Jamaica School of Agriculture and
received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees
from Oklahoma State University,
Stillwater. He was employed as an
agricultural extension officer with the
Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture and
as an agricultural science teacher with
the Ministry of Education. After completing
his doctoral degree in 1986,
he was employed at Oklahoma State
University as a research associate. In
1989, he took a research and teaching
position at the University of Tennessee,
where he has been involved in
teaching the undergraduate poultry
production courses as well as mentoring
graduate students and conducting
research in the nutrition–environmental
temperature interaction in poultry. He
also served as interim assistant dean of
the College of Agricultural Sciences and
Natural Resources. In the latter position,
he was responsible for graduate
school activities as well as undergraduate
and graduate student recruitment.
To support his teaching and research
activities, Smith has obtained extramural
support from federal, university,
and industry sources. He has published
more than 100 scientific articles, including
37 papers in referred journals, 38
abstracts from national presentations,
20 technical articles, and 11 proceedings.
He has also given 14 invited
presentations. Smith was twice nominated
for the PSA Purina Mills Teaching
Award. He has received numerous
awards from the University of Tennessee,
including the Chancellor’s Citation
for Extraordinary Service, the E.
R. “Prof” Lidvall Outstanding Teaching
Award, the Outstanding Faculty Advisor
Award, the W. F. & Golda Moss Outstanding
Teaching Award, and the W. S.
Overton Faculty Merit Award, presented
in recognition of outstanding contributions
to student development. He is an
active member of the Gamma Sigma
Delta National Honor Society of Agriculture
as well as the Honor Society of Phi
Kappa Phi.
Director #1:
Chris Ashwell
North Carolina State University
Chris Ashwell, a native of Virginia,
earned his BS degree in biochemistry
and nutrition from Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University and his
PhD in biochemistry from Wake Forest
University’s Bowman Gray School of
Medicine. He was first exposed to
poultry science by Paul Siegel in 1989
and completed his dissertation investigating
the mechanism of substrate
recognition by the enzyme signal peptidase,
isolated from the hen oviduct.
Ashwell continued on his career path
back to agriculture under the guidance
of John McMurtry, initially as a
USDA-Agricultural Research Service
postdoctoral fellow and eventually as a
lead scientist at the Beltsville Agriculture
Research Center. He is currently
an associate professor in the Poultry
Science Department of North Carolina
State University’s College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences. Since joining the faculty
at North Carolina State University
in 2003, he has served as an instructor
in the university’s biotechnology
program, teaching laboratory courses
in real-time PCR and gene expression
analysis using microarrays. Ashwell also
advises undergraduate poultry science
majors, master’s students studying
physiology, and numerous PhD students
from departments ranging from
chemical engineering to zoology. It is
his goal to foster a new generation of
independent critical thinkers who can
solve problems that face the future of
animal agriculture. Although primarily
a researcher, Ashwell is the past chair
and currently serves on both the College
and the University Undergraduate
Course and Curriculum Committees and
was responsible for the revision of all
academic curricula incorporating new
university general education requirements
in 2008 to 2009. The main
focus of Ashwell’s research program
resides in two areas; these include
the identification of gene(s) underlying
traits of economic importance in
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6 SPRING 2011