UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Catherine G. Lyons has been appointed assistant to the dean for minority affairs and assistant professor of agricultural and extension education in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, effective March 15.

Lyons will develop and implement programs to market undergraduate and graduate education to underrepresented ethnic/cultural groups and to recruit and retain minority students in the college. She will serve as academic co-adviser and personal counselor for target group undergraduate students; serve on graduate student committees; direct the minority student apprenticeships, the Bayou and other feeder programs; advise the Penn State Chapter of Minorities in Agriculture and Natural Resources Association (MANRA); and implement recruitment scholarship award programs.

"We are extremely pleased with Dr. Lyon's appointment to this critically important position," says Robert D. Steele, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences. "She is an outstanding leader and is skilled at planning and implementing educational equity and multicultural programs."

Lyons has been director of the Center for Minority Graduate Opportunities and Faculty Development in Penn State's Graduate School since 1988. She was an administrative fellow to the provost and executive vice president in 1991-1992.

Lyons earned a bachelor's degree in home economics from South Carolina State College in 1970, a master's degree in education from Bank Street College of Education in 1975 and a doctorate in agricultural and extension education from Penn State in 1988. She also has done graduate work in international education and curriculum development at Columbia University.

Lyons is a member of Alpha Tau Alpha, Phi Delta Kappa, Phi Lambda Theta, the African Heritage Studies Association and the National Association of Minorities in Agriculture and Natural Resources.

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EDITORS: For more information, contact Dr. James Mortensen at 814-865-7521.

Contacts: Chuck Gill cdg5@psu.edu 814-863-2713 814-865-1068 fax