Educator award to AG COMM program leader

Professor Lulu Rodriguez, director of the Agricultural Communications Program at the University of Illinois, earned international recognition recently for her teaching skills and contributions. The North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture organization presented the 2015 NACTA Educator Award to her during a June conference at the University of Georgia, Athens.

This award recognizes individuals whose efforts represent the best in agricultural higher education. Selection was based on her teaching philosophy; evaluations by students, alumni, administrative officers and peers; availability to students; teaching innovations and other criteria.

“It is an honor to be receiving this award from the organization that advances the scholarship of teaching and learning in agricultural, environmental, natural and life sciences,” Rodriguez said.

Professor Rodriguez joined the University of Illinois faculty in 2013 to lead one of the University’s most senior interdisciplinary academic programs. Agricultural communications has been offered jointly since 1961 by the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) and the College of Media. An honored educator and researcher, she teaches courses that involve information campaigns, multimedia production, visual communication, risk perception and other dimensions of communications as related to farming, food and nutrition, natural resources, rural development and other aspects of agriculture.