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02/04/2007New director comfortable in positionNikki Rothwell returns to area to run research
Nikki Rothwell is the new district horticultural coordinator for the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station in Bingham Township south of Suttons Bay. TRAVERSE CITY — Nikki Rothwell spent plenty of time in the classroom as both a student and a college instructor, but she's more at home roaming the farms and fields of northwest Michigan. "I'm just a hometown kind of girl,” said Rothwell, 34, who took over this month as coordinator of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station to replace longtime director Jim Nugent. Rothwell is a native of Kingsley, where she grew up on a beef cattle farm. She worked as an assistant several years ago for Hort Station researcher Gary Thornton, and recalls how she enjoyed watching him work in northern Michigan's fields and orchards in face-to-face contact with area farmers. "I remember saying to Gary, 'I love your job,' ” she said. She started her college education at Western Michigan University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in biology and received a master's degree from Michigan State University. From there she went to the East Coast where she earned a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and was an instructor at two colleges in Massachusetts. But she missed her northern Michigan home and returned as the extension district's Integrated Pest Management (IPM) educator for fruit products. She distributed information to growers on topics like dealing with disease and other growing problems. When Nugent decided to retire, Rothwell was tapped to run the operation. Rothwell said the station is the only one in the country doing research primarily in the tart cherry field and she hopes to expand those efforts. "We want to make sure we're churning out the best research we can do here,” she said. "We really know what the industry needs, because we're smack dab in the middle of it.” [an error occurred while processing this directive] |