On Monday, November 29, the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program announced the appointment of Rob Hedberg, SARE’s interim director since January 2009, as its new national director.

Since growing up on a small farm in Michigan, Hedberg has dedicated his career to agriculture science, education, and policy, most recently at USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) , where he spearheaded USDA’s participation in the negotiations on the Research Title of the 2008 Farm Bill.

The announcement came after a flurry of new staff hires in the North Central SARE office, where Vance Morey will be stepping in as Interim Regional Director, as well as Rob Myers as Professional Development Program Coordinator and Beth Nelson in the newly-created position of Associate Director.