Featured Students
Leslie Marbury
Leslie Marbury is an M.S. student majoring in Environmental Economics in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics and has been awarded the Master's International Assistantship. With an overall grade point average of 4.0, she expects to graduate in December 2003. She graduated cum laude from UGA with a B.S.A. in Environmental Economics and Management in 1998.
Leslie is in the Master's International Program which combines the Peace Corps and graduate school. Since July 2003, she has worked as a Project Coordinator at the UGA, Office of International Agriculture. She is responsible for writing, coordinating, and editing grants and reports and identifying new sources of funding. In addition, she disseminates information about the office of International Agriculture and its study abroad programs by visiting classes, responding to inquiries, and developing and distributing pamphlets and flyers.
From 1999 - 2001, Leslie worked with the United States Peace Corp as an Ecotourism Advisor in Volta Region, Ghana. For this assignment, she completed high-impact cross-cultural training to help her understand the environment and effectively communicate with host country nationals. While in Ghana, she conducted extensive research and wrote a Tourism Assessment and Feasibiity Study for the Liati Wote Tourism Management Team. Leslie also created a Tourism Development Plan outlining specific objectives and activities necessary for the successful development of tourism, with strong emphasis on maximizing economic benefits within the community. By securing $6,000 in funding from the Peace Corps Partnership Program, Leslie was able to oversee the building of 40 household latrines for the improvement of community sanitation. She was fully responsible for interviewing, training, and the development of numerous positions, including tour guides and the community guest house manager's position. In addition, she supervised and trained a staff of ten on a community committee and led weekly meetings with them, transferring financial, managerial, budgetary, and technical skills, along with educating them about ecotourism. She also coordinated local meetings and events with governmental Ministries, NGOs, village leaders, and businesses.
In the summer of 2002, Leslie received Eco-training in International Wildlife Studies at Sabi Sands, South Africa. While there, she developed skills concerning guest relationships and learned the importance of community involvement in ecotourism activities. She gained practical exposure to the natural environment under the instruction of highly qualified teachers and wildlife trackers and completed an intense study of wildlife ecosystems and their natural inhabitants. Upon completion of her training, she was awarded a Certificate in Game Ranging.
Leslie would like to stay in the international field – especially in the agricultural and environmental areas. She is beginning a job with USAID as an Agriculture Development Officer in their New Entry Professional program. She will train in Washington, D.C. for about a year before going to work overseas.
Leslie's hometown is Leesburg, Georgia. and she loves to spend time at her farm whenever possible. She enjoys "anything outdoors" – hiking, golf, canoeing, and riding horses. She has recently begun taking a trapeze class and is really enjoying it.
Sara Rachael McCall
Rachael McCall is a first year Agricultural Economics major from Rochelle, Georgia. In high school, Rachael was Valedictorian and STAR student of her class. She served as the South Region Georgia FFA Vice-President. In April 2003, she won the state job interview competition in FFA, and in October 2003, she placed second in national competition.
After completing the Agricultural Economics program, Rachael plans to attend the UGA Law School. She attends Downtown Community Fellowship Church and plans to get involved in Civitan in the near future. Rachael is a "die hard" Georgia football fan. In her leisure time, she enjoys working out at the Ramsey Center, studying, going downtown, or sleeping.
Cam Tribble, an Environmental Economics and Management major, spent the summer of 2003 as an Agricultural Intern for Congressman Jim Marshall in Washington, D.C. As an intern, Cam worked with the congressman's staff on agricultural issues and policies.
Cam was awarded the Roy E. Proctor Memorial Scholarship for the 2003-2004 academic year and received the Firor Memorial Scholarship for the 2002-2003 academic year. He is vice president of Kappa Sigma Fraternity, a member of the Agricultural Economics Club and the honorary agricultural fraternity, Alpha Zeta. During his four years at UGA, Cam has been on the Dean's List and named a President's Scholar.In the future, Cam plans to enter the field of environmental law. He has studied environmental issues in New Zealand and worked at UGA's Laboratory for Environmental Analyses as a research assistant for over two years.
Cam is from Dublin, Georgia. In his leisure time, he enjoys, golf, bird hunting, fishing and watching UGA football. He is a member of UGA's Ducks Unlimited and is involved with the organization, Adopt-a-Highway.
Featured StaffLaura Alfonso
Laura Alfonso has been a Library Associate II in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics for five years. Before joining the department, she was a Library Associate II with USDA INFOSouth. Through performing her varied duties, Laura is a great asset to faculty, staff and students in the department. She edits documents for faculty, organizes and catalogues materials in the Reference Room, performs literature searches using electronic databases, tracks down datasets from obscure sources, selects and purchases additional reference books, periodicals, and CD-ROMS, provides documents through UGA libraries or inter-library loans and directs graduate students in their research needs. In addition to her work, Laura serves on the University Council Library Committee, the UGA Transportation and Parking Task Force, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Staff Representative Group, the UGA Staff Council and the CAES Holiday Luncheon Planning Committee.
Laura was born and raised in Tampa, Florida, lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for three years, and North Carolina for two years. She received a BA in Fine Arts and did graduate work in studio arts at Florida State University. After leaving college, Laura won some art awards in Florida. She enjoys traveling and listening to Wagnerian opera. Laura visited Vienna, Austria in 2000 and saw "Tannhaeuser" at the Staatsoper and the tomb of the Habsburgs in the Kapuziner Kaisergruft. She plans to attend Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" at New York's Metropolitan Opera in April of 2004.
Other leisure time activities included in Laura's busy schedule are watching baseball games and training her dogs in AKC obedience trials. Her Border Collie, Sarah, has won five first place awards during her career in the AKC obedience ring, as well as the prestigious Dog World Award for high scores in her UKC Companion Dog title.
Faculty, staff and students appreciate the dedication and cheerful attitude with which Laura carries out her work.
Sue Boatright
Sue Boatright is a Research Coordinator for the Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development located in the Lumpkin House in Athens, Georgia. She compiles, edits, and publishes the Farm Gate Value Survey, and The Georgia County Guide, both of which are annual publications. She also publishes the pamphlet, "Passport to Georgia," every few years. In addition to these publications, Sue produces thirty plus Power Point presentations annually with county demographic and agricultural data. These are compiled based upon requests received by County Extension personnel for leadership programs. Sue began working at the university in 1986 on a part-time basis. In 1989, she began working full-time with the Community Development Department, primarily on The Georgia County Guide project.
Sue received a B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Kentucky and an M.A. in Library Education from the University of Georgia. For a few years, she taught school in Atlanta and Waycross, Georgia. She then worked for the Athens Regional Library on the Book Mobile before accepting a part-time position at the university.
Sue and her husband, Tinker, have two adult sons, Murray and Will. She likes to walk when she gets the opportunity and has really enjoyed visiting her son in Washington state.
Sue's hard work and dedication produces valuable publications and other materials that are used throughout the state in private and public decision making.
Featured Faculty
Cesar L. Escalante
Dr. Cesar L. Escalante has been an Assistant Professor of Farm Finance and Production Economics in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics since January 2001. His job involves research and extension work in farm financial management, agricultural credit, production economics, and risk management. As co-author for a lease pricing article published in the Review of Agricultural Economics, Dr. Escalante was presented the 2000 Outstanding Journal Article Award by the American Agricultural Economics Association. He is a member of the Editorial Council of the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics (2003-2006) and coordinator for the Farmer-to-Farmer Program of the Partners of the Americas, an academic and technical exchange program between the University of Georgia and the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco in Brazil. Since January 2003, Dr. Escalante has served as the editor of the "Georgia Economic Issues Newsletter" and has been selected as the topic leader for Agribusiness and Farm Finance, Selected Paper Committee for the 2004 Annual Meetings of the Southern Agricultural Economics Association (SAEA).
For nine years, Dr. Escalante worked in the banking industry as a financial analyst and eventually as a lending officer, specializing in industrial and agricultural loans for small and medium-scale businesses at a major commercial bank in Manila, Philippines, his home country. Before accepting a position at the University of Georgia, he worked as a full-time Research Specialist for the Center for Farm and Rural Business Finance in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois. Before joining our department, Dr. Escalante had already published three refereed journal articles and has since published an additional nine refereed journal articles. Previous research accomplishments focused on, among other subjects, farm credit migration, intertemporal risk behavior and farm capital structure decisions, farmland cash rental rate and premium determination, farmers' debt repayment and business growth strategies, and sustainable growth issues.
Dr. Escalante received a B.A. in Economics from Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines and was an Exchange Scholar at the International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan. He received an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Guelph, Canada, where he was awarded the SODEN scholarship for academic excellence. He earned his Ph.D. in Agricultural Finance and Development Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Escalante's wife, Arlene, was a Certified Public Accountant in the Philippines and received her M.B.A. from Eastern Illinois University. They have two children, ten-year-old Carmina, and four-year-old Mac. The family initially moved to Canada when their daughter was only eleven months old. Later, they transferred to Illinois for Dr. Escalante's Ph.D. studies.
Now living in Georgia where the weather is more similar to weather in the Philippines, Dr. Escalante enjoys fun time with his wife and children, gardening, and playing tennis. He is a Basic Faith catechist at the elementary level of the Religious Education Program of St. Joseph's Catholic Church.
