DDP Cougs' Rendezvous

Registration location: Pre-function room of the Tacoma Courtyard by Marriott

Speaker: Dean Muriel Oaks

Presenter: Paul Whitney Professor of Psychology
Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts
Seminar Information

Presenter: Chris Miller
DDP Career Counselor
Seminar Information

ASWSU-DDP invites you and your guests to attend this hosted
lunch. This is a great way to meet other DDP students
and staff . . . and enter to win WSU door prizes!

Presenter: Jeanie Pittman
Instructor
WSU Department of Human Development
Seminar Information

Academic Advisors - Bobbi Thomas, Jaqueline Almdale, Craig Stephens, Maria Greaney, Chrisi Kincaid

Career Counselor - Chris Miller
DDP Financial Aid Counselor - Kathreen Silva

Location: Cascade Ballroom
Tacoma Courtyard by Marriott

• Master of Ceremonies: Cliff Moore - Director, Washington State University Thurston County Extension
• Alumni Recognition
• Donor Message
• Speaker: John Gardner - Vice President Economic Development and Extension WSU Extension

Washington State University President Elson Floyd created the office of Economic Development and Extension in July of 2007, appointing John Gardner as Vice President to lead this new effort. Having worked in both universities and business, Dr. Gardner leads the effort which links private, public, and philanthropic partners to better leverage all of WSU's assets for economic growth and vitality of the state.

Gardner is a native of the Kansas City area where he earned degrees in agriculture and agronomy at Kansas State University, and a PhD at the University of Nebraska in plant physiology. His US-AID funded graduate work focused on the sorghum/millet program INTSORMIL directed at Africa and India. He then moved north to Carrington, North Dakota, and spent much of his twenty years there as Director of the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center. His work on the domestication of new crops led to business interests throughout the 1990's and he became one of the founders and chief executive of AgGrow Oils, a 540-member LLC that integrated the production, processing, and marketing of both novel and designer oilseeds.

Just prior to WSU, Gardner spent six years at the University of Missouri as the Associate Dean/Director for Research and Outreach in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources after which he became the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, a position similar to that he currently holds at WSU.

John will speak on the importance of the university being committed to relevancy and the public, especially as we move towards a more knowledge-based economy. He will also speak to the importance of such from the perspective of the student. That the future holds a career ahead that will be filled with multiple jobs in a career, and many of which may/will be self-directed in nature. The fact is, the future workforce is commanding a different kind of skill set than the past.