Davis College Associate Dean for Academic & Student Programs Robert Cox
Robert Cox, associate dean for Academic & Student Programs in Texas Tech’s Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, has been named president of the Non-Land Grant Agricultural and Renewable Resources Universities, a national organization representing public universities that educate students in agriculture, natural resources and related fields outside the traditional land-grant system.
'Collectively, these universities educate a large number of students in agriculture and natural resources, and I’m excited to represent them.'
Cox assumed the presidency this month during NARRU’s annual conference at East Texas A&M University, about 60 miles northeast of Dallas. His election places a Texas Tech administrator at the helm of an organization that brings together more than 45 institutions and academic programs working to strengthen teaching, research and outreach in the food, fiber and natural resource sciences.
For Cox, the role builds on nearly two decades of teaching, research and academic leadership at Texas Tech and reflects the increasingly broad mission of universities preparing students to address challenges in agriculture and natural resources.
“It’s an honor to work with the other outstanding members of NARRU to advocate for, plan for, and advance the interests of the nation’s non-land-grant colleges and universities,” Cox said. “Collectively, these universities educate a large number of students in agriculture and natural resources, and I’m excited to represent them.”
Cox joined the Texas Tech faculty in 2008 and has served as a professor of habitat restoration ecology and associate chair in the Department of Natural Resources Management. Before becoming associate dean, he served as interim associate dean for Academic & Student Programs.
His academic career has centered on community and restoration ecology, the distribution and conservation of rare and endemic plant species, and the ecology of invasive species. His research has included large-scale restoration experiments designed not only to advance ecological understanding but also to provide practical applications for land managers.
His teaching has spanned range plant ecology, restoration ecology, plant identification, range and forest plants, wetland plants and range improvements.
Cox’s work in the classroom has earned some of Texas Tech’s highest teaching honors. He has twice received the university’s President’s Excellence in Teaching Professorship, in 2018 and 2021, and received the Davis College Teaching Award in 2019.
He also has served as a faculty specialist in Texas Tech’s STEM Teaching, Engagement and Pedagogy program and was named to the university’s Teaching Academy in 2016. Earlier honors include the Range Science Education Council’s Early Career Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2014 and the Texas Tech Alumni Association New Faculty Award in 2013.
His path to Texas Tech included research and teaching positions in Idaho and California. Before joining the university, Cox was a postdoctoral ecologist with the Grassland, Shrubland and Desert Ecosystem Research Program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station in Boise, Idaho.
He previously worked as a research assistant with the University of California-Riverside’s Center for Conservation Biology and as a teaching assistant in the university’s Department of Botany & Plant Sciences.
A native of Utah, Cox earned a bachelor’s degree in conservation biology and a master’s degree in botany from Brigham Young University. He received a doctorate in botany, with an emphasis in ecology and conservation, from the University of California-Riverside.
He is a member of the Ecological Society of America, the Society for Ecological Restoration and the Society for Range Management.
Cox’s election also continues a history of leadership by Davis College faculty and administrators within NARRU. Cindy Akers, Texas Tech’s vice provost for Administrative Affairs, previously served as NARRU president in 2019.
Akers oversees accreditation, curriculum strategy and policy compliance in the Provost’s Office. She previously served as interim dean and associate dean in Davis College and earned her doctorate in agricultural education from Texas Tech.
The leadership roles held by Cox and Akers underscore the university’s longstanding involvement in national conversations about agricultural education and the future of the agricultural and natural resource sciences.
As NARRU president, Cox will work with member institutions on issues affecting agricultural education, research and outreach while helping strengthen collaboration among universities serving students and industries across the country.
CONTACT: Clint Krehbiel, Dean, Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2808 or Clint.Krehbiel@ttu.edu
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