By Rick Zimmerman, Executive Director
For the past 10 years, Kathryn Boor has served as Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Cornell University. I have known Kathryn for over 40 years, since we were both undergrads at Cornell, and was extremely optimistic that her appointment as Dean of CALS was going to usher in a new era at the College. Dean Boor has exceeded my expectations. Not only has she tackled numerous fiscal and structural challenges with dignity and ease, she has raised the bar for future individuals who will attempt to fill her shoes.
Given her love for the dairy industry (she grew up on a Horseheads, NY dairy farm), Dean Boor distinguished herself in the realm of food science, particularly with dairy products. She worked closely with New York’s Dairy Promotion Advisory Board, employing dairy farmers’ checkoff funds to address critical food safety issues that were impacting the quality of New York produced and processed dairy products. Dean Boor is world renowned for her research in food safety and dairy product development.
Hiring new faculty has been a priority of Dean Boor and she aggressively employed Cornell’s Faculty Renewal Fund to leverage industry support. Through Dean Boor’s leadership, a $500,000 investment of private sector funds would seed a faculty position for the working lifetime of a new faculty member. The agribusiness community, led by the NEAFA Board of Directors, seized on this opportunity, and successfully raised $1 million from our generous members to seed two faculty positions in the Department of Animal Science. Today Kristan Reed and Joe McFadden, the Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance Partners Sesquicentennial Fellows in Dairy Cattle Biology, are at Cornell, making significant contributions to understanding dairy cattle biological function and productivity because of Kathryn’s partnership with the agribusiness community.
Dean Boor’s era at CALS ends this October when Ben Houlton, currently at UC Davis, takes the reins. She will be missed but never forgotten. The dairy industry will remain within a special place in Dean Boor’s heart, and I am sure her legacy of impact and leadership will continue as she takes over as the Dean of Cornell’s Graduate School. We wish Kathryn Boor all the best in her future endeavors and thank her for her years of leadership and service as Professor of Food Science and Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.