Lexington, KY - Bluegrass Tomorrow recently recognized UK's Nancy Cox with its Vision Award for her long-term vision in support of the Bluegrass and its signature equine industry.
"Under the passionate direction of Nancy Cox, UK's Equine Initiative was conceived and is being implemented to coordinate education, service and science under one roof to sustain and support equine enterprises for the people and businesses of the commonwealth," said Don Robinson, Bluegrass Tomorrow's director.
The Bluegrass Tomorrow Vision award is the latest in Cox's long list of grants won, honors earned, projects completed and academic papers published in scientific journals. Now the associate dean for research in the College of Agriculture and director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Cox came to UK in 2001 from Mississippi. There she rose through the academic ranks to become professor of animal science at Mississippi State University and later associate director for research planning at the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.
The seeds of Cox's career in agriculture were planted much earlier. An only child, she grew up in rural South Carolina on her parents' hobby farm. She raised lots of animals, worked on 4-H projects and competed in barrel racing with her horse for many years.
Cox graduated from Furman University as an English major, but took many science classes since she planned to become a veterinarian. While earning her master's degree in physiology at the University of Georgia, she changed her career path to academic research.
After finishing her doctorate in animal physiology from North Carolina State University in 1982, she began teaching and doing research at MSU. When she was asked to go into academic administration - something she didn't plan to do - she "found it rewarding."
Still, the former researcher confessed that she misses her time in the lab. Now she's involved with research throughout the College of Agriculture.
"Every piece of research in every discipline is a part of this office, in some way," Cox explained. "We make sure budget issues are okay. We let faculty know when funds are available. We make sure federal research guidelines are followed. We help with the auxiliary parts so that faculty members can focus on the science."
The most rewarding part of her demanding job is "to add value to what our faculty does, helping them make connections, helping them progress in their careers. When they are rewarded or recognized, if our office had a part in it, that's a great thrill."
The most challenging part of her work is "seeing good projects that go without funding, having to tell people that we don't have a way to support them."
Funding for research is "50 percent from the state and the rest comes from gifts and grants," Cox said. In 2001, the College of Agriculture received $8 million in outside grants. By 2008, the figure had increased to $31 million. With the slowed economy, the 2009 figure is down to $26 million.
State funding is down now, but federal funding has increased. Still, nationwide, only about 10 to 15 percent of grant projects submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture receive funding.
Cox's responsibilities at UK include research centers at Princeton and Robinson Forest, the Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center, Regulatory Services, the Tracy Farmer Center for the Environment, the Tobacco Research and Development Center, the USDA-ARS Forage-Animal Production Research Unit, the Gluck Equine Research Center and Foundation and the Equine Initiative.
The Equine Initiative came about through reflection on the college's service during the Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS) epidemic. Increasing academic focus on serving the state's number one agricultural industry "was certainly something that Dean [Scott] Smith and I saw as logical," Cox said.
"We had Bob Coleman and Laurie Lawrence as faculty members in animal science and the distinguished group at the Gluck Center, but we didn't have the diversity of programs that we had for beef cattle or forage crops. We didn't have a one-stop shop for horses," she said.
"In a rare move, Dean Smith declared us to be 'under-involved' and that we needed to change that quickly," Cox recalled. The challenge "was doing it without diminishing our other programs."
In 2005, each department was asked to define what it would need to step up and serve the equine industry, Cox said.
"In two years we had in place the undergraduate degree (in equine science and management), hired teaching faculty, added to pasture management and environmental management, and developed our facilities at Maine Chance," Cox said.
Cox works closely with various state and national agricultural organizations. This work gives her insights to share with UK's researchers and builds networks.
Cox emphasized that agricultural research at UK serves all of Kentucky's agribusiness interests.
"We're strong on making a difference and seeing applications of our research. We're getting our science into the real world," she said.