Alumni Spotlight
Name: Dr. Marty Vanier, DVM
Current Title: Director II, Research
Organization: National Agricultural Biosecurity Center
Majors: B.S. Animal Sciences and Industry 1979, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine 1981
K-State College of Ag is proud to recognize alumni from all departments who continue to pursue their passion in their respective fields. It is through experience that we continue to grow as individuals and stewards of the industry. Through those experiences, we hope to be a continued resource for the next generation of K-State students to lean on for advice and continue to build our network!
Why is it important to prepare students to use future technology that's not even in use yet in today's industries?
We have to train our students to be flexible and engaged enough that they can, in fact, adopt these new technologies as they come forward. That's a process that we need to teach our students and provide experiences so that they can be adaptable in the future.
What value do you feel the Bilbrey Family Event Center and the Tee Jay Quarter Horses Walker Family Arena will bring?
It will allow us to bring in more events and provide more opportunities for extension and education. It's going to be a tremendous student recruitment tool just as a facility. All of the kids out there in the state who are interested in equine activities now have another really nice facility in Kansas where they can compete. But the same is going to be true of kids in the livestock realm because we can have cattle, dairy, swine, goat and sheep shows. The rodeo team is going to have a place where they can practice and compete year-round.
While the general public thinks it's really cool to see these kids on horseback riding up and down Denison Avenue to get to Weber to compete, there are so many things that could go wrong with that and such incredible liability and safety issues.
So let's have a new state-of-the-art facility, where we can have all of these events in comfort and bring in more folks and show them all the terrific things about K-State.
What excites you most about the Agricultural Innovation Initiative?
I think the Ag Innovation Initiative is a terrific way to launch K-State into the future. We have a variety of wonderful faculty members, and wonderful programs here. I think the Agriculture Innovation Initiative is a terrific way to bring everybody together and synergize all of these talents, experiences and programs that we have to cement K-State as a leader in agricultural innovation.