MURRAY, Ky. — Dr. Brian Parr has joined the Hutson School of Agriculture at Murray State University in the department of Agricultural Science as professor and Head. Parr, who previously got his start in higher education at Murray State, comes back after 7 years at Auburn University.
Parr is a native of Greeneville, Tenn., and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and his Ph.D in Agricultural Education from Oklahoma State University.
Parr began his career serving 5 years as an Agricultural Education Instructor at David Crockett High School in Washington County, Tennessee. After serving as a Graduate Teaching Associate at Oklahoma State, he served 2 years as an Assistant Professor at Murray State and 1 year as an Assistant Professor at The University of Georgia. During his tenure at Auburn he advanced through the ranks from Assistant to Associate Professor and served as the head teacher educator in Agriculture and assistant department head. He coordinated the undergraduate, master’s, and specialist programs in Agriscience Education and the PhD program in Career and Technical Education.
An award winning researcher and author, Parr was named Author of the Year for the Journal of Agricultural Education in 2006 and 2008 and honored with the distinguished manuscript award for the Southern Region Research Conference in 2014. His outstanding teaching was recognized by the Auburn College of Education with his selection as the winner of the Leishuck Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2013 and he was named the Outstanding Young member of the southern region of the American Association of Agricultural Education in 2011.
As Department Head at Murray State, Dr. Parr succeeds long time faculty member Dr. Dwayne Driskill in coordinating all of the programs in Agricultural Science including Agribusiness Economics, Agricultural Education, Agricultural Systems Technology, Agronomy, Horticulture and Agriscience Technology. The growing enrollment in this department consists of over 350 total students within the Hutson School of Agriculture which has now grown exponentially to over 930 students. Dr. Parr will also be responsible for the administration over the new on-line Master of Science and Agricultural Education Leadership Doctoral programs.