Long-time extension director, scientist named Dean, vice president of land grant engagement

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 3, 2024) – University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto and UK Provost Robert DiPaola today announced that longtime agricultural and extension services director Laura Stephenson has been named vice president for land grant engagement and dean of the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Martin) was appointed -Gatton CAFE).

Stephenson currently serves as associate vice president for land grant engagement and associate dean and director of extension. After six years in consulting and administrative positions at the University of Tennessee, she joined the university and Martin-Gatton CAFE in 2018. Previously, she served for more than 20 years in the Cooperative Extension Service in the United Kingdom and as a high school home economics teacher in Monticello, Kentucky.

She will succeed Nancy Cox, current dean and first vice president for land grant engagement. Cox, highly respected throughout the state for her leadership on agricultural issues, has served as dean of Martin-Gatton CAFE for more than a decade.

“Dean Stephenson knows Kentucky. She is knowledgeable about Kentucky agriculture and is deeply committed to our land grant mission, as evidenced by the UK Cooperative Extension Service’s nationwide presence and deep roots,” Capilouto said. “As we seek to embed this land grant commitment to Kentucky in everything we do as part of our mission to move this state forward, Laura’s leadership, her understanding of our state and her deep roots here will be critical to our work and our mission .”

“Dean Stephenson is well respected within the college and throughout the agricultural community in this state and across the country,” DiPaola said. “She will build on and expand on the strong foundation that Dean and Vice President Cox have built over the last decade by leading one of the nation’s leading agricultural colleges.”

“I am incredibly pleased to take on these important leadership roles on behalf of the UK and the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment,” said Stephenson. “The legacy of leadership and service created by Dean Cox and her predecessors will guide us as we expand our presence as a college, our presence in the state, and expand our mission to do more for the Commonwealth we serve .”

In October, UK’s Board of Trustees directed Capilouto and the campus to focus intensively on working with partners to do more for the state’s overall health. The developing Advancing Kentucky Together network will work with partners to expand efforts to improve health, education and meet workforce needs across the state.

A critical part of this initiative is the role of Cooperative Extension, the UK’s presence in each of the state’s 120 counties, and its continued development in providing diverse support to partners and communities in the areas of agriculture, consumer and financial issues, and increasingly in healthcare partnerships, among others.

At the same time, Martin-Gatton CAFE is undergoing a transformation of its infrastructure and presence on campus. The Martin-Gatton Agricultural Sciences Building, scheduled for completion in early 2026, will be the college’s central student center and primary teaching facility. The ground floor will feature spacious, open classrooms as well as a café, providing students a place to build relationships and collaborate.

In 2022, the late University of Kentucky alumna and former trustee Carol Martin “Bill” Gatton made a transformative gift of $100 million to the college through the Bill Gatton Foundation.

It was the largest donation in the history of the United Kingdom and probably the largest ever given to an agricultural school in the country. The vision of the gift is to support scholarships, academic programs, and innovation and infrastructure.

To this era of change and growth, Stephenson brings more than 35 years of experience in land granting in universities, agricultural colleges and classrooms.

She began her career in the UK as a consultant in Clark County and eventually as Associate Director for Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Field Programs in the UK.

At the University of Tennessee, she served as chair of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences and associate dean for Extension.

On her return to the UK, Stephenson led a major reform and reorganization of the Cooperative Extension Services to ensure more efficient service delivery and communications.

Over the course of her academic career, she has been a principal investigator or co-investigator on several externally funded grants totaling millions of dollars in research funding on topics such as workforce training, nutrition, community building, and health. She is co-author of a number of publications and journal articles on topics related to nutrition and extension.

She has been an active leader in community workshops and training and has won numerous state and national awards for her work in consumer science consulting and research.