Dr. Deacue Fields selected to lead UA Division of Agriculture

The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture has a new leader. The school’s Board of Trustees confirmed Dr. Deacue Fields as vice president for agriculture on Wednesday (May 25) based on a recommendation by System President Donald R. Bobbitt.

The trustees took action during an executive session. Bobbitt recommended Fields to lead the system’s Division of Agriculture in April following a national search.

“I want to congratulate Dean Fields on being confirmed as the new vice president of agriculture for the U of A System,” said Chuck Culver, who has been serving as interim vice president since Mark Cochran retired in September 2021. “The Division of Agriculture will be in very good hands.”

Fields, currently dean of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, will begin his new job July 1.

“I am grateful for the vote of confidence from both the Board of Trustees and Dr. Bobbitt, and I am excited about this opportunity and look forward to the challenge ahead,” Fields said.

Fields was appointed Bumpers College dean in 2017. He came to Arkansas after serving as professor and chair of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Auburn University since August 2013. He joined the faculty at Auburn in 2002 and was promoted to associate professor in 2007, an appointment that also included extension duties.

He has also worked as an assistant professor and director of small farm outreach at Florida A&M University and as a graduate research fellow in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at Louisiana State University.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1993, his master’s degree from the University of Missouri in 1995 and his doctorate from LSU in 2002, all in agricultural economics.