Mary Ann Hansen honored with emerita status
Mary Ann Hansen
Mary Ann Hansen, an instructor of plant pathology and manager of the Plant Disease Clinic for Virginia Cooperative Extension in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of Extension specialist emerita by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The emeritus title may be conferred on retired professors, associate professors, and administrative officers who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in recognition of exemplary service to the university. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive a copy of the resolution and a certificate of appreciation.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 1984, Hansen has provided timely and accurate diagnoses of plant problems and research-based pest management information for Virginia Cooperative Extension agents and growers across the state for the past 38 years. She has served as an instructor at Virginia Tech, teaching a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses.
Hansen has served as vice president, president, and past president for the American Phytopathological Society’s (APS) Potomac Division and received the APS Potomac Division’s Distinguished Service Award in 2015.
As a member of the Virginia Boxwood Blight Task Force, she joined a team of researchers, Extension agents, specialists, and personnel from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to create the Boxwood Blight Task Force website, a definitive source of information on the invasive fungal disease. Boxwood blight was introduced to Virginia in 2011.
Hansen has been a co-principal investigator on several grants and shared her expertise through international programs. She introduced Extension agents to plant disease problems in South Africa in 2005, took Virginia Tech students to South Africa in 2004, and conducted a diagnostics project with a tomato farmers’ cooperative in Ghana in 2002.
She also has created educational resources and training opportunities for Extension agents, growers, and Master Gardeners, having developed a series of frequently viewed plant disease videos, instructional videos for Extension agents, and experiential and virtual plant diagnostics workshops for agents and Master Gardeners. For these efforts, she received the 2017 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Andy Swiger Land Grant Award and two mini-grants from the National Plant Diagnostic Network.
Hansen received her bachelor’s degree from the Ohio State University and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
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