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By Larry B. Dendy
Thomas F. Rodgers will serve as interim vice president for public service and outreach until the  position is permanently filled.
Karen Holbrook, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, announced that Rodgers, who has been associate vice president for public service and outreach since 1994, will fill the position until a successor is in place for S. Eugene Younts, who stepped down Dec. 31 after 28 years. A search committee is identifying candidates and plans to recommend a new vice president early this year.
Rodgers has worked in UGA’s public service and outreach program since 1972, when he joined the Cooperative Extension Service as a community and rural development specialist. From 1978 to 1996 he was an assistant director of the extension service, serving as head of the 4-H and youth programs and as head of county operations.
As associate vice president, he managed the promotion system for the 450 faculty members in UGA’s public service and outreach program. He is the North American coordinator for the Partners of the Americas Farmer-to-Farmer Program and helped set up a governmental training division at the University of Tartu in Estonia.
He has helped design and implement a number of economic development programs in rural areas of Georgia and serves on the technical advisory council to the Lieutenant Governor’s Rural Council.
Rodgers earned two degrees at UGA--a bachelor’s in animal science and a master’s in agricultural economics. He holds a doctorate in education from North Carolina State.
Younts, who was also associate provost, became UGA’s second vice president for public service and outreach in 1972. Under his leadership, the program has grown into the largest campus-based outreach program in the nation. He will remain at UGA as a Distinguished Public Service Scholar until he retires.
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