DR. DON HODGES,
UT INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE,
Professor And Director School of Natural Resources
General Session | HeartSong Salon BCD
“UTIA Setting a Pathway for Leadership into Forestry’s Future”
Dr. Don Hodges, who earned his B.S. in forestry from the University of Tennessee and M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, has served as a faculty member in the UT Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries since 1999. Before his appointment at UT, Hodges worked for the USDA Forest Service and served as a faculty member at the University of New Hampshire, Mississippi State University and Tulane University.
Hodges is the recipient of the 2018 Distinguished Service Award from the International Society of Forest Resource Economics, and he was named a Fulbright Teaching and Research Scholar to Slovenia in 2011. He continues to work with scientists from the University of Ljubljana and the Slovenian Forestry Institute, including hosting visiting scientists and arranging for UT forestry students to have international experiences in Slovenia conducting research. He co-teaches a doctoral research methods course every spring at the University of Ljubljana with their faculty.
In 2009 Hodges was announced as a James R. Cox professor at UT Knoxville for his outstanding classroom teaching, scholarly work and campus and community leadership.
A certified forester, Hodges is a member of the Forest Stewards Guild, the Society of American Foresters, the Tennessee Foresters Association and the American Economic Association. Earlier this year he was elected to a five-year term (2019-2024) to the Board of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), the world’s largest forestry research organization. His term will begin at the organization’s World Congress, scheduled for September 29 – October 5 in Curitiba, Brazil.
Dean of UT AgResearch Hongwei Xin said, “Dr. Hodges is a highly accomplished scholar and well-regarded leader at local, national and global levels. With his 20 years of service at UTIA in various faculty and administrative roles, he possesses a wealth of institutional knowledge that will serve this leadership role well. Don also has a proven track record of being an effective team builder. The UTIA Leadership Team looks forward to working with Dr. Hodges to advance the missions of the department and the Institute. We are also very grateful to Dr. Lisa Muller who has done an excellent job as the interim head.”