The Director of Oklahoma State University’s Master of International Agriculture Degree Program, Shida Henneberry, has made a name for herself by advising students, earning grant dollars, leading study abroad courses and committing herself to the students of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

Her dedication was most recently recognized by her selection as a 2014 recipient of the Excellence in College and University Teaching Award for Food and Agricultural Sciences. The U.S. Department of Agriculture national award is given annually to two university faculty for their use of innovative teaching methods and service to students.

“It’s often said that when you are around great people, it makes your best personal qualities come forward,” Henneberry said. “I attribute this award to the level of greatness of our students.”

Henneberry is the first OSU faculty member to receive this prestigious honor, which was presented at the 127th Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Annual Meeting.

“Shida Henneberry is an outstanding teacher. She has received 17 awards and honors for her teaching including recognition for her undergraduate teaching and advising, her graduate teaching and advising and her teaching scholarship,” said Cynda Clary, CASNR associate dean. “Dr. Henneberry has been important to our program in numerous ways, but it’s especially significant to note her efforts on behalf of graduate students.”

Using an integrated approach to teaching, Henneberry brings her discipline-based research into her classroom and conducts research on teaching. She aims to foster critical thinking by teaching the fundamental tools of economic analysis and the skills to employ those tools to analyze real world economic events.

Laura Carolina Pedraza Robles, who earned a doctorate in agricultural economics from OSU in 2012, recalled a particular course about international agriculture trade policy, where Henneberry was able to take the extremely complex theoretical models and convert them to easily understood and applied concepts.

“Through the use of real life examples, student participation in class and current events applications, she allowed the class to see past sometimes abstract theories to the heart of the concept,” Robles said. “After she developed in us the understanding of how and why these concepts worked, comprehending the theory behind them came as second nature.”

The ability to take the classroom material and apply it to real world situations is of upmost importance to Henneberry.

“I believe that students’ active participation is a key to learning and I search for ways to include active learning strategies into my classes,” she said. “I think we learn best when we can relate to what is taught. In my classes, I search for ways to help my students connect to the material.”

During her nearly 30 years of service to OSU, Henneberry also has mentored 33 international visiting scholars and post-doctoral researchers, 155 master’s students and 20 Ph.D. students.

“As a graduate advisor, Dr. Henneberry gives her students considerable freedom, but holds them to a high standard. Her students have successfully published their work in agricultural economics journals and have found employment as agricultural economists,” said Wade Brorsen, Regents professor and A.J. and Susan Jacques Chair. “Her record of service to students in the international area is clearly outstanding.”

In addition to her teaching and advising efforts, Henneberry has authored 61 peer reviewed journal articles; 14 books, book chapters and bulletins; and numerous conference proceedings and popular press articles during her career. An aggressive grant writer, as well, she has garnered nearly $1.4 million from numerous groups and organizations for her work.

Under Henneberry’s direction for the past three years, MIAP’s enrollment has nearly doubled.

She has received many awards including the 2010 Distinguished Graduate Teaching Award from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and the Oklahoma House of Representatives Outstanding Oklahoma Educator. She is an honorary initiate of Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars, and in 2011, she was awarded the lifetime honorary title of Regents Professor.

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REPORTER/MEDIA CONTACT:
Sean Hubbard
Communications Specialist
Agricultural Communications Services
145 Agriculture North
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078
Phone: 405-744-4490
Fax: 405-744-5739
Email: sean.hubbard@okstate.edu

Oklahoma State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, State and Local Governments Cooperating: The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, or status as a veteran, and is an equal opportunity employer.