Greetings from the Department Head
Autumn brings change. The leaves change color, the students return to campus, and we welcome a new cohort into the Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture.
There has also been a lot of change to the leadership of the College of Agricultural Sciences in the past couple of years. See photo below for current College leadership team members.
The College of Agricultural Sciences is pursuing a new vision: Unquestioned global preeminence in digital agriculture and the agri-biome focusing on the safety, security and sustainability of food and resource systems to enhance the well-being of humans, plants and animals.
How does the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture support this vision? We grow plants. We design places. But most importantly, we work to enhance human well-being. Which humans? The 2% who work in agriculture? No, our vision is broader. We serve the people who consume the plants and live in the places, in other words, we serve ALL people.
Our department trains students and carries out research on food and beverage production, but we don’t stop there. We work on optimizing the nutritional and health characteristics of those foods in order to optimize human health.
But this is not just a food crops department; we also work on enhancing our environment through flowers, trees, turf, and ornamentals, and we design yards, playgrounds, parks, sports facilities, and landscapes that are both functional and beautiful. These spaces enrich all aspects of our health, contributing to our physical health through exercise, our mental health through beauty and relaxation, and our emotional health by bringing communities together.
I am proud to be a part of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at CSU, a group of people committed to enhancing all aspects of human well-being. Healthy Food. Healthy Communities. That’s what we do! I am so pleased to welcome a new cohort of students to join us as we put our skills and knowledge to work to serve humanity today and into the future.
