M. Susie Whittington
Josephine Sitterle Failer Award
B.S. Agricultural Education, 1982
M.S. Agricultural Education, 1988
Ph.D. Agricultural Education, 1991
M. Susie Whittington was a senior in high school when she visited Ohio State with her agricultural science teacher, who told her, “I think you should be a teacher, and I think this is where you should go.”
Thirty-five years later, Whittington is still heeding those words—and is now giving her own advice to a generation of Ohio State agricultural education students.
“Dr. Whittington has risen above the standards for service to students,” said Caryn Hoerst, a graduate teaching associate in the Department of Human and Community Resource Development. “She always puts students first and never hesitates to do whatever she can to lend a helping hand. As a dedicated professional, Dr. Whittington has made positive impacts on the careers of students throughout the agriculture field.”
After graduating from Ohio State in 1982, Whittington spent five years as an agriculture teacher at Wellington High School. She returned to Ohio State to earn postgraduate degrees, then was an assistant professor of agriculture at the University of Idaho from 1991 to 1995 and an assistant professor of agricultural and Extension education at Penn State from 1995 to 2000. She returned again to Ohio as an associate professor of human and community resource development.
Whittington has twice received the E.B. Knight Journal Author Award from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture, and she was honored with the Outstanding Research Paper Presentation Award and Author of the Year Award from the American Association for Agricultural Education. She has served as president of the Association for Career and Technical Education Research.
Whittington advises the Agricultural Education Society (she was president of the society as an undergraduate) and helped its members develop a strategic plan that will allow the organization to prosper in years to come. The society recently won the Ed Johnson Outstanding Student Organization Award from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, as well as the university’s Outstanding Student Organization Program Award. And Whittington helps her students make cream puffs each year during the Farm Science Review to raise money for society programs.
“Not only has Dr. Whittington been an outstanding adviser, she also has been a mentor, counselor, and a friend to many members of the Agricultural Education Society,” said president Jody Poth. “Her sincere personality, determination to help others, humble manner, and passion for life are all characteristics that make her admirable.”
Whittington also works with the agricultural education program at Buckeye Valley High School. She is an administrative council chair and Sunday School teacher at Liberty United Methodist Church, and co-president of the Northwest Swim and Dive Team in Columbus.
“Dr. Whittington has excelled in agricultural education. Her research focus has led many others to explore aspects of teaching and learning that may have otherwise gone unexamined,” said John C. Ewing, assistant professor of agricultural and Extension education at Penn State. “By interacting with Dr. Whittington, even if just for a brief moment, one can see how she cares about the students and people she works with in the community.”
