Williams-Wheeler Joins AAFCS Board of Directors

Meeshay Williams-Wheeler, Ph.D.

Associate Professor Meeshay Williams-Wheeler, Ph.D., has been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences.

Williams-Wheeler is a faculty member in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences and program coordinator for Child Development and Family Studies. Her research takes a sociocultural approach to better support the health and well-being of African American families.

The American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences is the only professional association dedicated to family and consumer sciences students and professionals from both multiple practice settings and content areas. The AAFCS is a broad-based 501(c)(3) membership organization that connects FCS professionals to share knowledge, research and experience.

Minor’s Research Receives Coverage

The News & Record, the Triad’s largest news source, and YES! Weekly, an alternative weekly news source, have each published a story about research by Radiah Minor, an associate professor of animal sciences, to investigate SARS-CoV-2’s potential to infect livestock.

“There seems to be a prevailing assumption that animals, particularly livestock, couldn’t be infected by people with the virus, but that aspect really has not been studied. There are still so many unknowns,” Minor said.

“We became curious about food animals, particularly swine, who have a high percent of genetic similarity to humans. Pig and human lungs and hearts are anatomically similar in size and structure. Chickens and cattle are less anatomically similar, but we don’t know if they can be affected. We really should.”

The story, “N.C. A&T Ag Research Team Investigates SARS CoV-2’s Potential to Infect Food Animals,” was published Feb. 24.

Project LLIFE Highlighted in Newsletter

Project LLIFE, a research project led by faculty member Valerie Jarvis McMillan, Ph.D., was featured in the February edition of the Ready for School, Ready for Life e-newsletter.

With assistance from the Cemala Foundation, Project LLIFE aims to increase skills and performance in language and literacy for children between the ages of 1 and 4. LLIFE stands for Language and Literacy Impacting Families and Educators.

“Our program is focused on children in culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in southeast Greensboro, and our overall goal is to try to close the gap for children of color around language and literacy when they enter kindergarten,” McMillan, associate professor of child development early education and family studies, told the newsletter.

Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) has partnered with Project LLIFE in active reading training sessions in late 2020. Due to the pandemic, these training sessions switched from in-person to online, as did much of Project LLIFE’s work.

“Working with Ready Ready, we had two very intense active reading training sessions virtually,” McMillan said. “Our students practiced the active reading approach, and it allowed them to develop labels and terminology for these strategies. They will use this training with the families during collaborative learning sessions with families in February and March.”

Since 2014, Ready for School, Ready for Life has served as a backbone organization charged with building a connected, innovative early childhood system within Guilford County. The organization has worked with hundreds of families and more than 110 agencies and organizations to develop and implement a community-wide vision to improve outcomes while reducing persistent disparities in child health, development and readiness for school.

Dale Interviewed by WGHP

Rosalind Dale, Ed.D.

Associate Dean and Extension Administrator Rosalind Dale was interviewed by WGHP FOX8 about money in the latest federal stimulus package to help disadvantaged farmers. 

The American Rescue Plan Act earmarked $10.4 billion for agricultural programs and nearly $5 billion will be used to assist disadvantaged farmers, including many Black farmers.

“Certainly, a step in the right direction,” Dale said of the funding. “It certainly is not enough when you consider the struggles that minority and Black landowners have had over the years, but it certainly is a starting point that will help them, but it will take just as long as these losses have occurred to be able to really right the wrongs that have happened.”

The segment – “‘A step in the right direction’; Stimulus bill to give farmers of color much-needed relief, NC Cooperative Extension official says” – also aired on CBS-17 in Goldsboro and FOX46 in Charlotte.

“Our small farmers are very resourceful, very resilient, but these additional resources will certainly help them improve all their efforts,” Dale said.

Ibrahim Co-Authors COVID Article

Salam A. Ibrahim, Ph.D.

Salam Ibrahim, a professor of food science, has co-authored an article, “Transformation of the Food Sector: Security and Resilience during the COVID‐19 Pandemic,” published in the journal Foods.

The ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic has resulted in a new era in the efficacy of the food supply chain, while the consequences of this new era on humanity, the economy and the food sector are still under examination, according to the article’s abstract.

The article summarizes food security during epidemics and pandemics before moving on to panic buying, food shortages and price spikes observed during the current crisis. The authors highlight the need to develop contingency plans and mitigation strategies that would allow a more rapid response to extreme events (e.g., disasters from climate change) and transform the food sector by making it more resilient.

CEPHT to Host Seminar April 6

The Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies will host a seminar led by Aubrey Mendonca, Ph.D., associate professor of food safety and microbiology in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University, noon-1 p.m. Tuesday, April 6.

The seminar, “Application of atmospheric cold plasma and plant-derived antimicrobial extracts for improving food safety,” will be held via Zoom. For more information, contact Professor Leonard Williams, Ph.D., director of CEPHT, at llw@ncat.edu.

Moses Interviewed About Hemp

University Farm Superintendent Leon Moses was interviewed by the Triad Business Journal about hemp for a March 19 story. He lamented the absence of adequate research prior to the launch of the pilot program.

“One of the things that should have happened early on is to give the ag universities in each state the freedom and the funding to study this product for a five-year period and then provide a stable crop that speaks to the herbicides you can use, the best fertilizers to use and the best way to market and process the products around the crop,” Moses said. “That would have helped the farmers know exactly how to grow it, how to market it and how to manage it. Right now farmers are learning as they go, just like we are.”

Gamma Sigma Delta to Host Seminar April 14

The N.C. A&T Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta, the honor society of agriculture, will host a seminar featuring Research Excellence Award Winner Reza Tahergorabi, Ph.D., at noon Wednesday, April 14.

Tahergorabi will speak on the topic “Can we reduce fat-uptake in deep-fat fried meat products?” Attend the seminar at https://ncat.zoom.us/j/98827381755?pwd=YklMWHJaKzhYMEw3Q3lKNmtvSE9ldz09.

Orange County Names Ag Center for Black Extension Agent

The Orange County commissioners voted this month to name a new Environmental and Agricultural Center in honor of Bonnie Bedal Briley Davis, the county’s first Black agricultural extension agent.

Davis, who died in 2018 at the age of 92, was a community builder who spent her 40-year career and her retirement helping county residents have better lives, friends told the News and Observer.