Mark Balschweid

Dr. Mark Balschweid is Professor and Head of the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication (ALEC) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). His background includes teaching secondary agricultural science for seven years emphasizing the interconnectedness of science in agriculture. He obtained his Ph. D. from Oregon State University and examined the role of enhancing science instruction in secondary agricultural education for pre-service teachers as his dissertation research. Dr. Balschweid spent 10 years as an agricultural education teacher educator faculty member at Purdue University. His research enterprise involves examining teacher beliefs regarding the applied science within agriculture and natural resources and discovering barriers that prevent teachers from collaborating across disciplines. <br><br>In 2005-06 he received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach and conduct research in agricultural education at the College of Agriculture, Science and Education in Jamaica. There, he continued his research and authored Jamaica’s first agricultural education baccalaureate degree program. He’s actively engaged in teaching, research and extension-related consulting activities with the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, USAID, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. He has conducted external evaluations for academic departments at Ohio State University, Michigan State University, Virginia Tech, and Oregon State University, as well as institutions in India, Iraq, and Jamaica. He is currently an institutional accreditation reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission.<br><br>He is past-president and Senior Fellow in the American Association for Agricultural Education, a Fellow in APLU’s Food Systems Leadership Institute, and a Big 10 Academic Alliance Fellow in the Academic Leadership Program. <br><br>Dr. Balschweid has served as ALEC Department Head at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln since 2008.