{"id":16249,"date":"2026-04-27T09:39:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/?p=16249"},"modified":"2026-04-30T12:32:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T16:32:05","slug":"umes-faculty-and-extension-member-awarded-for-mentorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/sans-monthly-digest\/umes-faculty-and-extension-member-awarded-for-mentorship\/","title":{"rendered":"UMES faculty and extension member awarded for mentorship"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2026\/04\/Karki-ARD-Award-by-Kara-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"Dr. Lila Karki receives the McKinley Mayes Mentoring Award March 31 at the 2026 Association of Research Directors Biennial Research Symposium\" class=\"wp-image-16250\" style=\"width:447px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2026\/04\/Karki-ARD-Award-by-Kara-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2026\/04\/Karki-ARD-Award-by-Kara-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2026\/04\/Karki-ARD-Award-by-Kara-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2026\/04\/Karki-ARD-Award-by-Kara-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2026\/04\/Karki-ARD-Award-by-Kara-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Pictured at the award ceremony, from left, are: <strong>Drs. Alton Thompson<\/strong>, ARD executive director at North Carolina A&amp;T State University; <strong>Moses T. Kairo<\/strong>, dean of UMES\u2019 School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences; <strong>Lila Karki<\/strong>, associate professor of agricultural economics and UMES Extension specialist; and <strong>Orlando McMeans<\/strong>, chancellor and interim president of the Southern University System.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">None shone brighter at the annual 1890 Association of Research Directors Biennial Research Symposium than <strong>Dr. Lila Karki<\/strong>. The associate professor of agricultural economics was awarded the 2026 McKinley Mayes Mentoring Award on March 31 during the event\u2019s awards banquet. The prestigious award recognizes an ARD member, or a research scientist, committed to mentoring early career faculty or students at an 1890 land-grant university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDr. Karki has been an asset to UMES over the past six years as an agricultural researcher, extension specialist and most fitting for this award, a faculty member and mentor. He is deeply invested in his mentees and truly cares about their success,\u201d said Dr. Moses T. Kairo, dean of UMES\u2019 School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his 30 years of experience spanning industry, government and academia, Karki lead or collaborated on agricultural research projects with funding totaling more than $10 million. His research areas included: the economics of year-round forage and pasture production, agroforestry (alley cropping) practices, capacity building for small-scale and limited-resource producers, urban agricultural, heirs\u2019 property and financial literacy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Karki is committed to ensuring his mentees complete their degrees on time and are augmented by experiential learning and professional development opportunities, Kairo said. He has involved graduate students in research, scientific writing for co-authorship on peer-reviewed publications, and presenting findings through presentations at scholarly conferences. His mentees have earned awards at such activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than 1,500 attendees gathered in New Orleans from March 28-31 to provide a forum for \u201cinteractions, knowledge sharing, building networks for expanded partnerships and to showcase the talents and achievements of the 1890 community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Gail Stephens, agricultural communications, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, <\/em><a href=\"mailto:gcstephens@umes.edu\"><em>gcstephens@umes.edu<\/em><\/a><em>, 410-621-3850.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Photo by Kara Nuzback, agricultural communications, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, <\/em><a href=\"mailto:tdudek@umes.edu\"><em>kanuzback<\/em><\/a><a href=\"mailto:kanuzback@umes.edu\"><em>@umes.edu<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>None shone brighter at the annual 1890 Association of Research Directors Biennial Research Symposium than Dr. Lila Karki. The associate professor of agricultural economics was awarded the 2026 McKinley Mayes Mentoring Award on March 31 during the event\u2019s awards banquet. The prestigious award recognizes an ARD member, or a research scientist, committed to mentoring early&#8230;<span class=\"cpschool-read-more-link-holder\"><a class=\"btn btn-basic cpschool-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/sans-monthly-digest\/umes-faculty-and-extension-member-awarded-for-mentorship\/\">Read more <span class=\"sr-only\">UMES faculty and extension member awarded for mentorship<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":40,"footnotes":""},"categories":[186,40],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-16249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-may-2026","category-sans-monthly-digest"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16249"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=16249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}