Forestry and natural resources agents selected for Virginia Cooperative Extension

Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources has recently appointed three new forestry and natural resources district agents for the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

Karen Cox will serve the Northeast District stationed in King and Queen County, Va. Cox has a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University and a master’s degree from Purdue University. She has been working for the Indiana Bureau of Forestry.

Jason Fisher has been selected to fill the vacancy in the Central District based out of Halifax, Va. Fisher has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Virginia Tech. He currently works for Virginia Cooperative Extension as a county 4-H agent in Halifax County, Va., and will be filling the vacancy left by Dan Goerlich, who was promoted to the position of central district program leader earlier this year.

Neil Clark has been chosen to serve the southeast district based in Suffolk, Va. Clark received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Virginia Tech. He is currently employed at the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station based in Asheville, NC.

With the addition of three new district agents, the Virginia Cooperative Extension now has a forest and natural resources agent in each of its six districts. The quest to create and fill these positions originally began in 1994. “We could not have done it without the support of many people here at Virginia Tech, our partners in the forest industry, and especially the Virginia Forestry Association and the Virginia Forest Products Association through the Forest Council of Virginia,” noted Jim Johnson, associate dean of outreach in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources.

The College of Natural Resources at Virginia Tech consistently ranks among the top five programs of its kind in the nation. Faculty members stress both the technical and human elements of natural resources and instill in students a sense of stewardship and land-use ethics. As a land-grant university, Virginia Tech serves the Commonwealth of Virginia in teaching, research, and Extension.