Professor Carey Williams was awarded the 2025 Outstanding Educator Award by the Equine Science Society on June 6 in Fort Collins, CO. Photo: Courtesy of Carey Williams.
Carey Williams, equine extension specialist in the Department of Animal Sciences and associate director for extension at the Rutgers Equine Science Center, has been honored with the “Outstanding Educator Award” by the Equine Science Society.
Presented on June 6 at the conclusion of the society’s three-day biennial symposium in Fort Collins, CO, the award recognizes “an individual who has demonstrated excellence in the area of equine education, either to students or in the horse industry.”
“Being recognized by my major society that I have been a member of since my first year as a graduate student more than 20 years ago means so much! As I look at all the previous recipients of this award, I feel deeply honored to be among the ranks of the esteemed colleagues whom I’ve admired over the years,” said Williams.
In addition to her outstanding teaching of equine science at Rutgers and her dedication to students, Williams is extensively involved in outreach programs for youth and adults, nationally and internationally.
Her signature undergraduate course, “Comparative Mammalian Anatomy,” is a popular 3-credit and upper-level Animal Science elective course that she developed more than 15 years ago, and which features hands-on lab classes. She also teaches “Equine Nutrition,” available as an online course to Rutgers undergraduate students but also reaching horse owners and enthusiasts globally through the Rutgers NJAES Office of Continuing Professional Education. This innovative, online format includes a two-tiered registration system to accommodate different learning preferences and has resulted in record enrollment.
Williams also consistently instructs or co-teaches other undergraduate courses, like “Animal Evaluation and Selection” and the horse section of “Animal Handling and Fitting.” Her student evaluations are consistently among the best, with high scores for teaching enthusiasm and content effectiveness.
She is also a dedicated mentor to graduate students, serving as the Graduate Program Director for Endocrinology and Animal Biosciences since 2023 and helping establish a popular 4+1 non-thesis master’s program. She has advised several master’s and doctoral students, and mentored numerous undergraduate research students, many of whom have gone on to achieve career success.
Carey Williams teaching students from LaGuardia Community College in the inaugural USDA NIFA NEXTGEN Animal Science Discovery Program’s (ANSCId) Summer Experiential Learning Program (SELP) and Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program hosted in July 2024 by the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Photo: Courtesy of OPOC.
Nationally, Williams has demonstrated success in extension activities. She hosts or co-hosts annual state and regional programs for adults and youth, including the Annual Horse Management Seminar. Her involvement in the Junior Animal Science Symposium reaches a significant youth audience. Since 2021 she has organized the Virtual Horse Management Seminar Series, which has attracted hundreds of in-person attendees worldwide, and the widely popular “Evening of Wine and Equine,” an educational equine seminar series hosted at local wineries.
She is a strong contributor to Extension Horses, Inc., a nationally recognized and award-winning extension outreach initiative led by professionals from national land-grant universities dedicated to bringing research-based information to the public. Her extension programs effectively use a combination of in-person presentations, distance education, webinars, podcasts, fact sheets, peer-reviewed journal articles and popular press, to effectively reach her audiences.
