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After serving as the interim director for nine months, Kelly Swanson has been named director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences (DNS) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, starting Feb. 1.

Every year, the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has the honor of recognizing several outstanding ACES alumni for their achievements. Alumni Award recipients are chosen in the categories of Outstanding Young Alumni, Career Achievement, Award of Merit, and ACES Family Spirit.

URBANA, Ill. — For University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students Saira Cruz and Mercedes Saavedra, majoring in animal sciences is making their dream careers possible. Thanks to a new partnership between the Department of Animal Sciences at U. of I.

Professor Elizabeth Olson will serve as the first associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Olson’s tenure will begin on Jan. 16, 2024, pending approval by the Board of Trustees. 

After five trailblazing years, the Center for Digital Agriculture (CDA) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a new executive director, John Reid, who plans to support CDA’s growth across all dimensions of use-inspired research, translation of research into practice, and education and workforce development. 

Natural resource management decisions in protected areas impact more than the wildlife and landscapes they’re charged to conserve. They also affect neighbors, who could otherwise hunt, build, or recreate as they choose on their own land. For decades, community members primarily voiced their opinions through brief and impersonal public comment periods. But an initiative led by environmental social scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is putting a new spin on neighborly communication. 

URBANA, Ill. —The College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has been a leader in agricultural education since its founding, turning out scores of teachers who inspire the next generation. Now, an ACES alumnus has helped revitalize agricultural education in his local district with the development of an agriculture education building and program at Meridian High School in Macon, Illinois.

Professor Michael Ward has been appointed as the Stuart L. and Nancy J. Levenick Chair in Sustainability in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES), part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES). Ward succeeds Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Brawn, who has held the first endowed chair since 2020. 

Since the summer of 2022, the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign welcomed 44 new and reclassified faculty members, its largest cohort of new faculty in living memory. Seven more have accepted offers and will start in the new year.  

URBANA, Ill. — The memory of alum and former faculty member Burt Swanson lives on in students from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who are supported by the Burt Swanson Scholarship in Rural Development to study abroad.