U of I CALS dean announces retirement plans

In nearly nine years as dean of University of Idaho’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), Michael Parrella has overseen a period of sustained and dramatic growth in programs, enrollment, reputation, facilities and external research funding.

Parrella, who also holds the title of special assistant to the president for agricultural initiatives in recognition of his many contributions to the university, recently announced he will retire on June 21, 2025, leaving ample time for a national search for his replacement.

Parrella joined the university as CALS dean and a professor of entomology in February 2016. He previously served as a University of California, Davis Department of Entomology faculty member beginning in 1989, chairing the department from 1991 through 1999 before becoming associate dean of the Division of Agricultural Sciences.

In his current role, Parrella leads more than 240 faculty based on campus and throughout the state at nine research and extension centers and UI Extension offices located in 42 counties and three federally recognized tribal reservations.

“President Green and I appreciate Michael’s commitment to the college and nine years of impactful service to U of I,” said Torrey Lawrence, provost and executive vice president. “Michael has been a dedicated advocate for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and Idaho agriculture during his tenure, aligning his passion and energy with the core tenets of our institution’s land grant mission to improve the lives of all Idahoans.”

Parrella has overseen steady enrollment growth in the college, which brought in a record freshman class last fall and is on a similar track this fall. CALS has led the campus in first-year retention during four of the past five years, and during the past two years, CALS has achieved the university’s best four-year graduation rate.

He has also helped position the college to aid the university’s goal to become an R1 research institution, which is the highest research designation of the prestigious Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Under Carnagie’s updated methodology, R1 institutions must average at least $50 million in total research spending and graduate 70 research doctorates over a three-year period. While the average time to complete a doctorate in CALS is about 5.8 years, as of last semester, there were 67 doctorate students listed as primary majors in CALS alone. Furthermore, total grant awards for CALS in 2023 totaled $91.56 million, compared with roughly $15 million in yearly extramural funding the college brought in when Parrella first became dean.

CALS has significantly upgraded and expanded its facilities under Parrella’s guidance. Understanding that the dairy and cattle industries generate roughly 66% of the value of Idaho agriculture, the college has broken ground on a 12,750-square-foot abattoir in Moscow to be called the Meat Science and Innovation Center Honoring Ron Richard, and CALS is on pace to be milking cows in 2025 at the Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (CAFE), which will include the nation’s largest research dairy. CAFE will also have a soil and water demonstration farm to study the connections between plant and animal agriculture.

CALS established the Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center in central Bonner County as its sole facility devoted to organic crop production in 2018. The facility includes 66 acres with an orchard, a retreat center and dormitories.

In 2020, CALS opened a new facility for faculty at the Nancy M. Cummings Research, Extension and Education Center in Salmon, which houses the college’s main cow-calf operation. In 2019, the university acquired Rinker Rock Creek Ranch in the Wood River Valley of central Idaho — a living laboratory that CALS and the College of Natural Resources operate in partnership with a diverse stakeholder group to collaborate on ecological grazing research at a watershed scale.

CALS recently celebrated the ribbon-cutting of the Idaho Center for Plant and Soil Health at the Parma Research and Extension Center and is also operating from a new Seed Potato Germplasm Laboratory in Moscow.

During his tenure, Parrella hired a record number of outstanding new faculty and championed investment in the college’s research agenda, empowering faculty to pursue record-breaking research funding.

Researchers in the college’s Department of Soil and Water Systems are building a first-of-its-kind facility at the Moscow campus that will study soil at greater depths than anywhere else in the world, called the Deep Soil Ecotron. The $19 million National Science Foundation award funds a facility that will include an array of 3-meter soil columns with sensors and monitoring devices.

Shelley McGuire, professor of nutrition and director of the college’s Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences, received $11 million through the National Institutes of Health Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant to establish a biomedical research center at the Moscow campus furthering studies on women’s health and nutrition.

CALS recently began accepting applications from Idaho producers for the Innovative Agriculture and Marketing Partnership (IAMP), which is funded with a $55 million United States Department of Agriculture award that represents the largest grant in the university’s history. IAMP will pay incentives to producers who implement designated climate-smart agricultural practices on their operations and will gather data regarding the effectiveness of those practices in Idaho conditions.

CALS has also made recent investments and filled key positions toward fulfilling President Scott Green’s goal of making U of I the “University of Water.”

Furthermore, the college has built strong connections with universities and research institutions abroad, with an emphasis on Taiwan, Mexico, Spain and Ireland.

The growth CALS has experienced throughout the past nine years has laid a strong foundation for the college to help Idaho communities and the agricultural industry meet the challenges that lie ahead.

“CALS is often described as being one big family, and it’s been my great pleasure to watch this family grow and thrive,” Parrella said. “In addition to our students, faculty and staff, our CALS family includes Idaho’s food producers, children evolving as leaders through UI Extension 4-H Youth Development, residents cultivating new skills through our many Extension programs and a host of other stakeholders representing every county in the state.”