As part of the Title VIA Distinguished International Guest Lecture Series, Dr. David J. Sammons will speak on “Why Be an Internationalist? The Importance of International Competence in a Flat World” at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 4 in WA-104.
Dr. Sammons is currently the dean of the International Center at the University of Florida. His 45-person office provides administrative leadership, facilitation and support for international activities for the entire campus.
Before this role, he held the position of Director of International Programs in the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. From 2004 to 2006, Dr. Sammons was on assignment with USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) while on leave from Purdue University, working as the senior advisor for University Relations and Agricultural Research, Training and Outreach in the Office of Agriculture at the agency.
At Purdue he was associate dean of the College of Agriculture and director of the Office of International Programs in Agriculture from 1993 to 2004. Previous to Purdue, Dr. Sammons was employed for 15 years (1978 to 1993) at the University of Maryland as a professor of agronomy with responsibilities in teaching and research on crop breeding as well as multiple administrative assignments. During the 1986 – 1987 academic year, he was a Fulbright Senior Fellow/Lecturer at Egerton University in Kenya.
He has served on the boards of two global agricultural research centers and in multiple consultancy roles on international research activities. In 2001, Dr. Sammons was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy. He is the author of over 170 scientific articles and seven books and book chapters.
His extensive international expertise traces to a formative experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines during the late 1960s.
All students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to this free lecture. A question and answer period and reception will follow.
This lecture is supported by Santa Fe College, the Department of Humanities and Foreign Languages and the U.S. Department of Education Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages Program Title VIA Task Force grant “Opening Doors to Asia.”
For more information, contact William Little at 352-381-7076 or william.little@sfcollege.edu.