Nancy Cox, Ph.D

Dr. Nancy M. Cox became Dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment on January 1, 2013. Prior to that, she served as Associate Dean for Research and Director of the Experiment Station at the University of Kentucky.   She received a bachelor’s degree (1975) from Furman University, M.S. (1977) from University of Georgia, and Ph.D. (1982) from North Carolina State University. 

 

Prior to becoming dean, her duties included oversight of Experiment Station state and federal research budgets. She was responsible for the college grants office that managed over $25 million in external awards in fiscal year 2012. She represented the College of Agriculture in a partnership with a federal laboratory, the USDA Agricultural Research Service Forage-Animal Production Research Unit.  She is the founding administrator for the UK Equine Initiative, now UK Ag Equine Programs.  She oversaw establishment of  a commercial partnership with Alltech  involving poultry and nutrigenomics research.

 

Dr. Cox has received honors and awards from the universities where she has taught and has served on numerous national committees for the Board on Agriculture section of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.  She served as chair of The National Agricultural Biotechnology Council and has served two terms on the National Research, Education, Extension and Economics Advisory Board for the Secretary of Agriculture.  She has a history of representing research in public policy arenas in Mississippi and Kentucky, as a co-chair of the Joint Legislative Task Force on Swine Farming in Mississippi and the Kentucky Animal Care Standards Commission and the Kentucky Biofuels Task Force. 

 

During the first 19 years of her career at Mississippi State University, she taught and conducted research in animal physiology, worked with 58 graduate students (21 as major advisor) and co-produced 43 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters At UK, Dr. Cox worked to secure renovated facilities for the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, with a $30 million state investment.  She has worked extensively with Kentucky Farm Bureau, Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association, Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers, Kentucky Poultry Federation, Kentucky Soybean Association, Kentucky Corn and Small Grain Growers, Kentucky Ag Council, and other agriculture organizations to promote UK’s agriculture research and extension programs.