The Southern Rural Development Center is proud to honor Dr. Mike Woods as the 2012 recipient of the Bonnie Teater Community Development Educator Lifetime Achievement Award. Woods, who has more than 31 years of exemplary rural economic development experience, serves as professor and head of the Oklahoma State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics.
From 1981 until 2006, Woods served as a state Extension specialist at both Texas A&M and OSU, with concurrent teaching and research appointments for many of those years. He has served in his current position since 2007, and in August, he will begin his tenure as OSU Interim Dean of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and Vice President.
His positive impacts on community development are evident at the local, state, regional and national levels. Woods has more than 100 publications and 600 Extension working papers, and he has served in leadership positions in numerous professional organizations. Woods was also involved in organizing the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals, and he later served as the organization’s president.
North Dakota State University Rural and Agribusiness Enterprise Development Specialist Glenn Muske, who calls Woods his mentor and advisor, says Woods’ “influence and impact on Extension’s community and economic development task has been substantial and will remain long lasting.”
Gerald A. Doeksen, the first recipient of this Bonnie Teater award, says he can think of no one more deserving of this prestigious award than Woods. “He has demonstrated better than anyone in the nation that economics can help local people, communities and states make better decisions in delivering community services,” says the OSU Regents’ Professor and Extension Economist.
OSU Professor and Extension Economist Notie H. Lansford remarks that Woods’ programs and research cover virtually the whole range of economic development activities. From local community strategic planning, data analyses, and training resources to statewide appointments and presentations to regional advisory roles to national in-service training, Woods continues to serve in numerous capacities.
For Woods’ long, distinguished career spent making a difference in the economies of rural communities and in the lives of those he has taught and worked alongside, it is most fitting that he be honored as the 2012 recipient of the SRDC’s Bonnie Teater Community Development Educator Lifetime Achievement Award.