The Center for Rural Enterprise Engagement is thrilled to welcome Deanna Reid, agricultural education and communications graduate student. Her research, funded by the Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program Grant, focuses on consumer perceptions of produce and plants via Facebook. Her agricultural communications interest combined with her background and emphasis in horticulture will make her a huge asset to what we do at CREE. Though it was “bittersweet” to leave her Virginia home, we are happy to have her be a part of CREE and our Kansas community. We asked Deanna to share five interesting tidbits about her and here is what she had to say.
- I was born and raised on a small farm on the outskirts of Broadway, Virginia, a little town in the Shenandoah Valley. Though I’m still learning my way around, I am enjoying getting to know Kansas and the vast, open cropland, which is a lot different from the mountains and rocky hills of home.
- My family owns and operates a retail greenhouse business, Glenhaven Greenhouses. Growing up in the greenhouse, I learned a lot of valuable lessons that prepared me for life, potential jobs, and graduate school. My first full-time job was as a greenhouse grower at Riverbend Nursery. I took care of 74 indoor and outdoor greenhouse locations and grew assorted perennials, ornamental grasses, fall chrysanthemums, and hostas. In March 2016, I left the nursery and started working for Virginia Cooperative Extension as the New River Valley Master Gardener Coordinator.
- I graduated from Ferrum College in Virginia in 2013 with degrees in agribusiness, horticulture, and Spanish. I’m very excited to be able to build on my undergraduate career here at K-State, while working on my master’s and doing research for the Center for Rural Enterprise Engagement.
- In 2008, I started DR Red Angus, my personal herd of registered red Angus cows, which has grown to include registered and commercial black and red angus cross heifers that were born and raised on the family farm. I still have the two original cows that I started with, Lassie and Juliet, and they look out for the rest of the herd and are often found babysitting in a corner of the pasture.
- A few of my favorite things either have four legs or four wheels – horses and muscle cars. I love horses and currently have two of my own, Bandit and Mika. I also love classic and American muscle cars. I attend as many car shows and cruise-ins as I can and have been known to reroute road trips to stop at a car event that I’ve seen from the interstate. While I appreciate many different makes and models, I’m a huge classic Mopar fan. My personal dream car is a Lime Light green 1970 Plymouth Road Runner with a 440 Six Pack engine, an Air Grabber hood scoop, black leather interior, and the iconic Road Runner “meep meep” horn.
Keep an eye on our website and our Facebook page to keep up with Deanna’s research and industry insights. Also, stay tuned for next week’s blog, starring Deanna’s family nursery, Glenhaven Greenhouses. Don’t forget to keep up with all of our business highlights to see how small, rural businesses are managing their social media in this era of new-media technology.