Jim Oehmke, Chair of DAFRE and Director of Economic Development, NJAES.
Announcement by Laura Lawson, SEBS Executive Dean and NJAES Executive Director
Dear SEBS/NJAES community
Please help me extend a warm and enthusiastic welcome to Dr. Jim Oehmke to Rutgers as our new Chair of the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics (DAFRE) and Director of Economic Development, NJAES.
Jim is a distinguished policy economist with a unique career trajectory. For 25 years, he was a professor at Michigan State University and then transitioned to take on the role of CEO at an independent think tank. He recently held leadership positions in the Bureau of Food Security at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he made a lasting impact on global food security policy. His scholarship applies economics to important health, food/nutrition, and climate/poverty issues with the goal to influence policy changes.
Jim joined DAFRE in January and has already engaged the department in energizing strategic planning efforts.
As Director of Economic Development, Jim is leading efforts to strengthen our responsiveness to our state’s needs for economic development in the area of agriculture, food, and environmental resources and connect this work to the research and teaching opportunities with DAFRE and Rutgers University. In this role, he works closely with Rutgers Cooperative Extension leadership and departments to identify needs and opportunities of New Jersey stakeholders. He also oversees the ongoing success of the Food Innovation Center and EcoComplex.
I extend gratitude and appreciation to Ramu Govindasamy for his many years of leadership as chair of DAFRE. It has been a pleasure to work with Ramu on a range of opportunities that he has pursued for DAFRE’s faculty, students, and staff. Ramu and I recently met, and he shared his excitement to engage more of his time into his scholarship. Thank you, Ramu, for your dedication!
