The Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources honored five individuals for their outstanding service in 2024.
Dr. Zhao Ma received the William L. Hoover Exemplary Faculty Service Award. Liz Jackson was named as the Outstanding Administrative/Professional Staff Member. Jennifer Spitznagle was honored with the Outstanding Clerical/Service Staff Member Award. Anna Blackford and Julia Buchanan-Schwanke were tabbed as the Exemplary Graduate Student Service Award honorees.
Dr. Ma stepped into the Interim Department Head role in March 2024 while maintaining her teaching and research responsibilities.
She joined the Purdue faculty as an assistant professor in 2013 and was promoted to associate professor in 2016 and full professor in 2020. A professor of natural resource social science and the director of the Human Dimensions Lab, Dr. Ma’s research focuses on understanding how individuals and institutions make decisions with respect to natural resource management and environmental conservation in the context of social-ecological change.
Dr. Ma was named a University Faculty Scholar in 2020 and received the Research Excellence Award at from the American Association of Geographers Human Dimensions of Global Change (HDGC) Specialty Group in 2023.
Dr. Ma was selected to participate in LEAD21, a leadership program for faculty and staff across the country in the land-grant system. She was also selected as a faculty fellow in the Faculty Leadership Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (FLAIR) Fellows Program in 2019.
Dr. Ma was honored in the spring of 2023 with the Purdue Agriculture Faculty Unsung Diversity Hero Award. She received the William L. Hoover Exemplary Faculty Service Award once before, back in 2017.
Comments from those who nominated Dr. Ma for the Exemplary Service Award described her service as exceptional, above and beyond, tireless and selfless. Other statements included:
Liz Jackson is the Engagement Specialist for the Hardwood Tree Improvement & Regeneration Center, Executive Director of the Indiana Forestry & Woodland Owners Association, and the Executive Director of the Walnut Council. She is a two-time Purdue alumna, earning her bachelor’s degree in forestry in 1982 and her master’s in management in 1984.
Jackson has been in her current role in FNR since 2004. The goal of her programming is to provide resources and information useful to the land ownership objectives of woodland owners in Indiana, the Midwest and beyond. She also encourages landowners to seek professional assistance in managing their properties as needed and develops communications products and meetings for landowners to share the latest research and information.
In addition, Jackson is an editorial board member and contributor to The Indiana Woodland Steward, which earned the 2017 Gold Award for Newsletters, Series of Articles from the Association of Natural Resources Extension Professionals.
Comments from those who nominated Jackson for the Outstanding Administrative/Professional Staff Member award noted:
Jennifer Spitznagle is an account clerk in the College of Agriculture Business Office working directly with FNR. Spitznagle, who has been a part of FNR since 2005, was a steady force in the business office during transition times over the past year amidst staffing changes.
She has previously won the Outstanding Clerical/Service Staff Member Award twice, in 2011 and 2020. In 2024, she also received recognition as a Thumb’s Up Award recipient.
Comments from those who nominated Spitznagle described her as: patient, highly knowledgeable, a stabilizing force, a tireless provider of exceptional service, a mentor, someone who answers all questions gladly, supportive and dedicated to helping. Other statements included:
Anna Blackford is a master’s degree student studying the ecological effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and overall risk of invasive species control through federal assistance in the Great Lakes region. She is co-advised by Drs. Mike Jenkins, Jingjing Liang and Mo Zhou.
In 2023-24, she acted as the president of the FNR Graduate Student Council for 2023-24. In this role, she communicated important departmental information to graduate students; coordinated graduate student activities from dinners to rafting, bowling and corn mazes; and represented the GSC at Purdue events. In addition, she assisted graduate students dealing with crises, led campus tours and advocated on behalf of FNR graduate students. She also helped classmates with field work for their research projects and with data analysis and coding.
Comments about Blackford noted:
Julia Buchanan-Schwanke, a 2018 wildlife alumna, is a current master’s degree student under Dr. Andrew DeWoody. Buchanan-Schwanke is currently working on a project aiming to use DNA to age wildlife.
Buchanan-Schwanke is an active member of the Purdue FNR Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice and Belonging committee. She has been one of the primary forces in maintaining the FNR Field Gear Closet, an initiative which offers new and gently used field gear to FNR students in order to break down the financial barriers of accessing field gear and to prevent the waste of gently used field gear that is no longer needed.
She has served as the graduate student advisor for the Purdue Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society and also is a part of the local planning committee for the 2025 conference of the American Society of Mammalogists.
Comments about Buchanan-Schwanke highlighted her assistance in helping plan and boost attendance at numerous department functions, assistance to her fellow students and service to professional societies.