ACADEMIC FEDERATION

Mary Louise Flint says the Academic Federation’s upcoming celebration is as much about the federation and the man who started it all, as it is about her receiving the James H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award.

“Jim Meyer initiated the Academic Federation, advocated for it and got the president of UC to sign off on it,” Flint said. “Chancellor Meyer really appreciated the contributions of non-senate academics and wanted to be sure that they had their own organization to participate in shared/self-governance, peer review and personnel actions, and more. UC Davis is the only UC campus that has such an organization.”

Flint knows the award’s namesake better than most. It’s her late father-in-law, who served as the UC Davis chancellor from 1969 to 1987. The Academic Federation (originally the Academic Staff Organization) got its start in his first year as chancellor.

Flint graduated from UC Davis in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in plant sciences. She continued her education at UC Berkeley, where she earned a doctorate in entomology in 1979.

She joined the Davis-based UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program as a Cooperative Extension specialist in 1980 and met her future husband, Stephen J. Meyer, and his father the chancellor the next year. (Stephen Meyer, a Sacramento attorney, completed his undergraduate work at UC Davis in 1971.)

Flint became affiliated with the Department of Entomology in 1983, as a Cooperative Extension specialist and lecturer. Both of those UC Davis titles are among those included in the Academic Federation, which also takes in such titles as adjunct professor and adjunct instructor, agronomist, professional researcher and project scientist, academic administrator and academic coordinator, and librarian and program coordinator — some 1,600 employees in all.

Over the years, Flint served on the federation’s Executive Council and Committee on Committees, and as chair of the Joint Academic Federation/Senate Personnel Committee.

THE DETAILS

• WHAT: Academic Federation's James H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award Dinner
• WHO: Honoring Mary Louise Flint
• WHEN: 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1
• WHERE: Ballrooms B and C, Conference Center
• TICKETS: $35 per person, payable by credit card by calling Ceremonies and Special Events, (530) 754-2262; or by check made payable to “UC Regents” and delivered to Ceremonies and Special Events, Conference Center (second floor)
• RSVPs: Due by Monday, Nov. 24
• MORE INFORMATION: (530) 754-2262

Entomologist Mary Louise Flint started her career in integrated pest management when it was just beginning to grab hold, 34 years ago.

Grab hold it did — this strategy of managing pests in an ecologically-based manner that reduces risks to people and the environment — due in no small part to Flint’s educational outreach and other efforts.

“It has been a thrill for me to see growers and gardeners now routinely using methods that were considered radical or too risky in 1980,” said Flint, who retired last summer as a Cooperative Extension specialist in the Davis-based UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (where she served as an associate director), and in the Department of Entomology and Nematology.

Now, in recognition of her careerlong contributions to the university’s mission, the Academic Federation has selected her as the recipient of the 2014 James H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award. It is the federation’s highest honor. See box for details on the Dec. 1 award presentation.

“Everybody in California, from gardeners to farmers, is much more aware of the ecosystems they work in, the balance of beneficial and pest organisms, and the impact of pesticides on the environment,” Flint said.

“In general, people are making more informed pest management decisions. I like to think that the UC Statewide IPM Program, UC Davis and the educational materials and programs I was involved in contributed to this change.”

Scientist, extension specialist, teacher

She joined the Statewide IPM Program at its inception and stayed until her retirement, and for the last 31 years held a dual appointment with the Department of Entomology (and Nematology, since 2013). She’s been involved in teaching her entire career, continuing into this fall quarter, co-teaching a course that she created: Plant Sciences 105, “Concepts in Integrated Pest Management.” She has mentored graduate students and continues to do so.

Flint is still doing research on the walnut twig beetle and thousand cankers disease, and the goldspotted oak borer, and plans to revise her book Pests of the Garden and Small Farm: A Grower’s Guide to Using Less Pesticide, one of several popular books she wrote or co-wrote. She also wrote or co-authored dozens of papers.

For her first 27 years at UC IPM, she served as the director of education and publications. She was the associate director for Urban and Community IPM for seven years until she retired.

She is most known for creating UC’s best-selling, internationally acclaimed manuals, which eventually provided IPM programs for 20 crops. The writers — herself and others whom she supervised — produced the books in consultation with interdisciplinary teams of IPM experts from around UC and Cooperative Extension.

“They were very innovative in their day, and many other universities have since created similar types of publications,” she said.

From CD-ROMs to YouTube

Flint continually embraced new technologies, extending her outreach via CD-ROMs, the Web, online training programs, touch-screen computer kiosks and YouTube videos, for example.

She was a major contributor to the UC Statewide IPM Program’s website, www.ipm.ucdavis.edu, which gets more than 50,000 visits a day from people looking for pest management advice. She oversaw the development of UC’s Pest Management Guidelines and worked with others in getting this massive database online, complete with photographs, giving UC and California growers the most comprehensive pest management Web site in the world. She also developed the Pest Note publication series for home, garden and landscape; the online series now covers 165 pests.

“As an extension specialist, my job has been to bring research-based information to user audiences in formats that they can use … to get people excited about adopting new practices and providing them with the information they need in formats that really help them implement the new methods.”

She followed up by “going out and showing people how to use the educational materials — often in train-the-trainer programs. This has involved collaborations with all sorts of people: farmers, pest control professionals, government agencies, UC Master Gardeners, retail nursery and garden center employees, and many others at UC (on campus and in Cooperative Extension offices around the state) and other educational institutions.” 

Some of the other honors she has received: Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award for Integrated Pest Management from the Association of Applied IPM Ecologists; an International IPM Award of Recognition, for “Growers Incentives Team Project,” 2009; and three IPM Innovator Awards from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, for the Sacramento Water Wise Pest Control Program (2003), IPM Toolkit for Early Care and Education Programs (2012), and IPM Advocates Program for Retail Nurseries and Garden Centers (2013).

‘Her name is synonymous with IPM’

Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology (and Nematology, since 2013), said of Flint, whom he nominated for the Meyer award:

“We are fortunate that she chose to spend her career here at UC Davis. Her name is synonymous with IPM, pest control alternatives and public service, not just in California and the United States, but worldwide.”

Parrella cited Flint’s leadership and creativity in the success of the UC IPM Program, where, he noted, she was the longest-tenured employee.

Commenting on her role as an extension entomologist, Parrella said: “We are proud of her innovative ideas, dedication, commitment and accomplishments.

“Dr. Flint is truly an outstanding leader and visionary who has initiated, conducted and established research, educational and outreach programs that we sometimes take for granted. She advances IPM practices that are economical, environmentally friendly and health-conscious.”

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