Whether the mechanism is a bulldozer or Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Christopher Fulcher wields tools for a singular purpose: to help people improve their communities. Fulcher, Co-Director of the Center for Applied Research and Environmental Systems(CARES) in the Division of Applied Social Sciences at CAFNR, launched his career in community development on the island nation […]

Nina Furstenau found her roots in Tunisia—a small North African country she had never been to before. “For the first time in my life I kind of looked like the people around me,” said Furstenau, who teaches food and wine writing in CAFNR’s Science and Agricultural Journalism program. Furstenau grew up in Kansas where her […]

When Pat Westhoff boarded the plane to fly from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Guatemala, it wasn’t just his first out-of-country trip—it was his first plane ride. Westhoff, the director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at MU and a professor in department of agricultural and applied economics in the College of Agriculture, Food […]

Sometimes, small town skills lead to big places. For Judy Stallmann, an MU professor of agricultural and applied economics, rural sociology and community development extension in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (CAFNR), and public affairs at the Truman School of Public Affairs, the skills she gained growing up on a farm in Iowa […]

Eight kilobytes. It’s about the size of the Google icon on its homepage. Minuscule by today’s computing standards, in 1973 it was the ram size Keith Jamtgaard had to teach a programming language to engineering students in Ecuador. Jamtgaard, a research associate and professor in the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis (OSEDA) at […]

Jere Gilles knew he wanted to serve in the Peace Corps before it even existed. “When I was in sixth grade I sort of thought JFK (President John F. Kennedy) stole the idea from me,” said Gilles, an associate professor of rural sociology in CAFNR’s Division of Applied Social Sciences. Gilles’ grandparents were homesteaders in […]

A meat tenderizer is one of Mike Cook’s most prized possessions. It’s autographed, not by Jamie Oliver, Wolfgang Puck, or any other famous chef. It bears the names of the Garre family who gave it to Cook nearly five decades ago when he was their son’s basketball coach in Uruguay, where Cook served as a […]

Brady Deaton crouched down as his bus passed through the barrier and police were drawing their guns.  His ride had just passed through a police barricade. Fortunately, no shots were fired—the police had been paid off – as asserted by a Thai colleague. “Boom there you are,” said Deaton, the 21st Chancellor of the University […]