Kevin Lombard, professor of plant and environmental science in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico State University, has been named a participant in the 19th class of the LEAD21 leadership program.
The program focuses on developing leaders in land-grant institutions and their strategic partners who link research, academics and Extension for leadership roles at colleges and universities across the nation.
Lombard is also the superintendent of the Agricultural Science Center at Farmington. Research projects at the science center focus on grapes, cherries, hops, alfalfa, corn, potatoes, beans, wheat, grass and several other crops, as well as drip irrigation and soil moisture, native plant and pollinators, and seed production research. The center also houses a weather station.
“I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to be accepted into the LEAD21 program,” Lombard said. “I look forward to sharing ideas and learning from other Agricultural Experiment Station directors and department heads, and program leads from throughout the land-grant system. I also look forward to the experience for professional and personal growth, and learning new skills that will help us continue to elevate the mission of the ASC Farmington in the Four Corners region and beyond.”
Among the NMSU faculty who have also participated in the program include Leslie Edgar, NMSU College of ACES associate dean of research and director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, and Lara Prihodko, associate director of the Agricultural Experiment Station.
“As a participant in class 10, LEAD21 had a profound impact on my leadership journey,” Edgar said. “I am grateful Kevin was accepted into this important leadership program, and I am looking forward to the positive impact this training will have on his career. Kevin has had a deep, meaningful impact at ASC Farmington, and I know this program will allow him to continue his personal and professional growth.”
“I am currently finishing the program as a member of class 18 and it has been a transformative experience,” Prihodko said. “LEAD21 not only builds leadership skills, it builds connections to faculty and leaders at land-grant universities across the United States. As a participant, you dive deep into what makes a good leader, practice those skills and build a lasting co-mentoring network. It is an intensive, year-long process, but worth the effort both personally and professionally. I am excited for Kevin to participate.”
LEAD21 provides an immersive professional development program for academic leaders from the land-grant system. Working in regular small groups meetings combined with three week-long immersive sessions, participants learn effective leadership skills for increasingly complex higher education environments as well as strategies for influencing institutional transformation in their current and future leadership positions.
“We are honored to support the aspirations of land-grant leaders from across the country,” said Rochelle Sapp, LEAD21 program director and leadership development specialist in the Office of Learning and Organizational Development at the University of Georgia. “With each successive class, we have seen the benefits of providing these leaders with opportunities to focus on their personal leadership skills, goals and style. As we’ve seen a tremendous shift in leadership over the past year, we have also been able to see the power of the LEAD21 alumni moving into these high-level leadership positions to create a lasting foundation of strong leaders for the land-grant system.”
The LEAD21 program is targeted at faculty specialists, program and team leaders, research station and center directors, district and regional directors, department heads and chairs, and others in land-grant universities’ colleges of agricultural, environmental and human sciences, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The 90 participating faculty and administrators selected for Class 19 of the LEAD21 program may be found on the program website, https://lead-21.org/class-19/.
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PHOTO CAPTION: Kevin Lombard, professor of plant and environmental science in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico State University, and superintendent of the Agricultural Science Center at Farmington, speaks to participants at the center’s 2021 field day. Lombard has been named a participant in the 19th class of the LEAD21 leadership program. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Man standing in a field.