Dr. Susan G. Stafford
Dean, College of Natural Resources
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
St. Paul, Minnesota 55108
stafford@umn.edu

Dr. Susan Stafford was appointed Dean of the College of Natural Resources, University of Minnesota, effective October 1, 2002. The College of Natural Resources enrolls more than 700 students in six undergraduate majors and four graduate programs. Three of its undergraduate programs are highly ranked in the United States: forestry (#1), fisheries and wildlife (#5), and natural resources management (#7). The college is poised to celebrate its centennial in 2003. Dr. Stafford is only the seventh individual and first woman to lead the college.

Prior to October 1, 2002, she was Head of the Forest Sciences Department in the College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University. In that position, Dr. Stafford oversaw undergraduate and graduate programs in Forestry and Natural Resources Management. Administrative responsibilities included the management and development of the academic, research, and outreach activities of the Department; fiscal management of the Department's budget (including the McIntire-Stennis projects); recruitment; mentoring of faculty and staff; development of effective and positive relationships with external clientele and cooperators; updating and implementing the Department's strategic plan, and leading the Department's development efforts.

From 1979 to 1998, Dr. Stafford was a Professor in the Department of Forest Science at Oregon State University (OSU). Dr. Stafford obtained her Ph.D. in Applied Statistics from S.U.N.Y. College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 1979. She has a B.S. in Biology and an M.S. in Quantitative Ecology. At OSU, she was the Consulting Statistician and Director of the Quantitative Sciences Group (QSG), a team she assembled upon coming to OSU in 1979. Dr. Stafford was responsible for overall coordination and oversight of the department's statistical consulting, computer networking, and electronic information needs, and established the Forest Science Data Bank (FSDB) for the Department.

Dr. Stafford has developed a program of research and education focusing on scientific databases and the statistical aspects of managing and analyzing data from long-term ecological studies incorporating traditional field-based studies as well as spatial data from Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and satellite remote imagery. Her work and writings are at the interface of statistics, ecology, and research information management. Dr. Stafford is an associated scientist with the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest and the Shortgrass Steppe (SGS) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Sites, both recognized as premier research sites of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) LTER Network. Methodology and protocols for research information management developed under Dr. Stafford's direction are now used nationally at many of the sites across the 24-site LTER national network, as well as internationally with the Chinese Ecological Research Network. Dr. Stafford is an active participant in intersite activities of the LTER Network, serving as chair of both the LTER Information Management Executive Committee and LTER Information Management Committee.

Dr. Stafford was the first Faculty Associate to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at OSU from 1987 to 1988, where she helped establish the OSU Family Employment Program - a program designed to help OSU be more responsive to the needs of dual-career families in contemporary recruiting.
During the 1994 calendar year, Dr. Stafford was invited by NSF to serve as Division Director of Biological Instrumentation and Resources (now the Division of Biological Infrastructure). She was responsible for an annual budget of about $55 million and programs in Instrumentation and Instrument Development, Research Training Opportunities (the predecessor of the current Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training [IGERT] program), Community Research Resources, and other special enabling projects.

Dr. Stafford has received many honors which include the 1997 OSU Alumni Association Distinguished Professor Award in recognition of outstanding professional achievement through teaching, scholarship and service to both the university and community; the 1997 Women of Achievement Award for extraordinary effort in furthering the advancement of the Women of Oregon; the 1994 Dean's Award for Outstanding Achievement for the Forest Science QSG; the 1991 Aufderheide Award for Excellence in Teaching; the 1990 Dean's Team Award for Outstanding Achievement for the Andrews Ecosystem Group; and the 1985 Oregon Outstanding Young Woman of America award.

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