CFAES Connect: June 2020

The Ohio State University Board of Trustees has appointed Kristina M. Johnson, PhD, as the 16th president in university history. Johnson, who has served as chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY) since 2017, brings more than 30 years of experience as an academic, business, and policy leader.

“We are pleased beyond measure to welcome Dr. Johnson to Ohio State,” said board chair Gary R. Heminger. “Her range of knowledge, service, and accomplishments across sectors and throughout her career is nothing short of remarkable.

“She is uniquely positioned to make an immediate impact—building on Ohio State’s momentum and advancing our mission to uplift lives through academic excellence.”

As SUNY’s chancellor, Johnson led a system of 64 public colleges and universities—including five academic health centers and three hospital systems—with 1.3 million students, 30,000 faculty, and 90,000 employees overall. Prior to that, she founded and served as CEO of several successful science and technology companies, served as under secretary of energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and held academic leadership positions at institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Johnson has close family ties to Ohio State and Ohio. Her grandfather graduated from Ohio State in 1896, played right guard on one of the early football teams, and was a member of the Tesla Club. Family lore has it that Johnson’s grandfather met her grandmother on the Columbus campus. Johnson has deep family roots in Ohio.

“Ohio State has always been a special place to me—well beyond its standing as one of the most respected teaching, research, and patient-care institutions in the world,” Johnson said. “I am humbled to be selected to lead this great land-grant university, and I look forward to meeting with students, faculty, and staff to begin our work together.”

At SUNY, Johnson launched a system-wide student success initiative that increased two-year community college graduation rates by 22%, cut in half the number of students requiring remediation before starting college credit-bearing coursework, saved students $47 million in textbook costs over three years, and established a goal to hire 1,000 underrepresented minorities and women in STEM by 2030. She worked with New York’s Empire State Development to form industry partnerships with IBM, Applied Materials, and Cree totaling $4.6 billion, with associated programs that helped advance SUNY research expenditures by $100 million year over year. Johnson also partnered with the New York Power Authority to procure 100% renewable electricity at SUNY by 2023.

In her role as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Johns Hopkins, she led a university-wide strategic planning process, stood up the Carey Business School, and launched the MOSAIC Initiative to recruit underrepresented faculty. As dean of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke, she led a strategic planning process that increased undergraduate enrollment by 20%, doubled the number of graduate students, tripled research expenditures, increased the school’s endowment tenfold, and led to the construction of the Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences. Also at Duke, Johnson worked to increase the percentage of women faculty from 6% to 19%. She hired 55 faculty members, including 19 early-career award winners and three members of the National Academy of Engineering.

Johnson will begin her tenure as Ohio State president on Sept. 1, 2020. She succeeds Michael V. Drake, who has served as president since June 2014.

To read more, click here.

The 2021 CFAES Alumni Awards nominations are due June 30, 2020. Awards are given annually in four categories:  

Meritorious Service Award: The purpose of the Meritorious Service Award is to give public recognition to non-alumni and/or alumni of the college who have been singularly significant in the college’s quest for excellence.

Distinguished Alumni Award: The Distinguished Alumni Award gives public recognition to those who have brought distinction to themselves and the college at large through their participation, commitment, and leadership.

International Alumni Award: The International Alumni Award is presented to outstanding international agriculture alumni representing, supporting, and promoting the college and The Ohio State University around the globe.

Young Professional Achievement Award: The Young Professional Achievement Award recognizes alumni for their early professional accomplishments. This award provides recognition for these individuals and serves as a stimulus toward further efforts by younger alumni. Honorees are to be no more than 35 years of age at the time of the award ceremony.  

Here are some important dates to remember:

• Tuesday, June 30, 2020: Nomination applications due. 
• Saturday, March 6, 2021: Alumni Awards luncheon.

Completed nominations should be submitted here. Please note that once you enter the webform you will not be able to save your progress, so we advise compiling nominations in a separate document and copying them into the webform.  

To nominate an individual, find the formal application and other resources here.

The College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Alumni Society Board represents the voice of all alumni of the college. The board serves as a resource for all relations between college alumni and The Ohio State University Alumni Association and has representatives from every academic department, every region of Ohio, from out of state, and from the last three graduating classes. The group meets quarterly in addition to holding events throughout the year.

Get to know a few of our board members each month.  

Cyndi Brill, Past President 

’93 BS Agriculture Education 

Associate Superintendent, Switzerland of Ohio Local School District 

Q: Tell us a bit about what you like to do when you are not at work.  

A: I enjoy sports, traveling, fishing, beaches, and cooking with my family.  

Q: What is your favorite thing about being on the CFAES Alumni Board? 

A: It has been a humbling experience to serve CFAES as an Alumni Board member. My favorite part of my role on this team has been my ability to give back to the college and the association through participating in different types of endeavors that financially support future students. Developing connections by rubbing shoulders with one another at games, social events, and community service functions. Staying informed and in the loop about news, research, and sports. Expanding my skills by participating in webinars, workshops, databases, and career coaching opportunities. And most of all, getting the chance to show my pride by supporting my Buckeyes!

Q: Tell us anything else that you want your fellow alumni to know about you (family, kids, pets, etc.). 

A: In high school, I had the honor of serving the Ohio FFA Association as a state officer, which grew my passion for the organization and the opportunities it provided to all students. I decided to apply to The Ohio State University to pursue a degree in agriculture. My grandparent’s initial disapproval had prompted me to withdraw my application, but after they gave me permission—they believed that knowing the subject matter would help in my desire to be an advocate for students studying agriculture—I was able to pursue this course of study.

Craig Berning, Class of 2017 Representative 

’17 BSAGR Agribusiness and Applied Economics

Legislative Aide, U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska 

Q: Tell us a bit about what you like to do when you are not at work.

A: When not at work, I’m often found hanging with friends (lucky to have a great crew of Ohio State friends that now live in DC!), been doing a lot of cooking during quarantine, and have rediscovered and been binge-watching previous seasons of “Survivor” that I used to love watching on Wednesday nights with my siblings growing up.

Q: What is your favorite thing about being on the CFAES Alumni Board? 

A: The fellow board members really impress me with their passion for staying connected and giving back to the CFAES community. It really shows, even though many of us graduated decades apart, how much of an impact everyone's time at OSU had on their lives.

Q: Tell us anything else that you want your fellow alum to know about you (family, kids, pets, etc.).

A: No pets ... yet. I’ve been very close to wanting to get a quarantine puppy though. My favorite food actually developed in college—nachos. I made it through my junior and senior years of college living off of Monday and Thursday $5 nachos that could feed three people at Ethyl and Tank. But to this day, I love nachos! After three years in D.C., I’m still on the search for the best place to get them.

Cyndi and Craig are both ending their terms on our board at the end of June. We want to thank them for their years of service and their countless hours of dedication to CFAES and its alumni family.