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Endowed Deanship

Janaki Alavalapati

JANAKI ALAVALAPATI
Emmett F. Thompson Dean

Janaki Alavalapati is the inaugural Emmett F. Thompson Dean of the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment. Before joining Auburn University as dean of what was known as the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences in 2015, Alavalapati served as a professor and department head of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Previous to this position, he was a faculty member at the University of Florida’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation from 1998 to 2008. Alavalapati holds a doctorate in forest resource economics and a master’s degree in rural sociology, both from the University of Alberta, Canada, and earned his master’s degrees in botany and forestry from universities in India. He has published over 200 publications and made more than 150 professional presentations on forests and natural resources. During his tenure as dean, Alavalapati has expanded the college’s academic, research and Extension and outreach platforms, ushering in a period of significant growth, noted by the school’s establishment as a college in 2022 and renaming as the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment shortly thereafter.

Established in 2021, Auburn University’s first and only endowed deanship honors Emmett F. Thompson, the founding dean of the Auburn University School of Forestry. A native of Oklahoma, Emmett Thompson holds degrees in forestry from Oklahoma State University, North Carolina State University and Oregon State University. The latter is a PhD in forest economics received in 1966. He was a member of the forestry faculty at Virginia Tech from 1962 to 1973 and head of the Department of Forestry at Mississippi State University from 1973 to 1977. Thompson came to Auburn in 1977 as head of the Department of Forestry in the School of Agriculture. He was named dean of the Auburn School of Forestry when the unit was established in 1984, and served until his retirement in 1998. Thompson was elected as a fellow in the Society of American Foresters in 1984, inducted into the Alabama Foresters’ Hall of Fame in 1994 and named Distinguished Alumnus of the Oklahoma State University Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources in 1999.

After becoming the founding dean, he continued to work with other departments to round out and improve educational opportunities for all students. This process continued after his retirement in 1998, leading to the wildlife programs joining the school. Thompson’s tenure at Auburn was highlighted by remarkable achievements in how forestry is taught and practiced in Alabama and beyond. He was the driving force behind the Solon Dixon Forestry Education Center, which filled a gap in experimental education. This hands-on facility hosts the forestry and wildlife summer practicum experience for students and natural resource-focused educational programs for practitioners from across the country who recognize its unique and valuable learning environment. Some of Thompson’s other accomplishments of note are the establishment of the Forestry in the Private Sector class and the Forestry Engineering degree. Auburn’s forestry program is now widely considered to be top-tier in the Southeast, and the Emmett F. Thompson Deanship is aimed at propelling the program to national prominence.

The endowed deanship supports the Dean of the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment. The holder of the Emmett F. Thompson Deanship demonstrates a strong commitment to students, staff and faculty and the provision of high-quality instruction, research and service. As the person responsible for providing the overall vision and determining the future goals and focus of a college or school within the university, the dean may use this fund to advance the strategic goals of the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment, in addition to current budgetary priorities.

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