Kelly Millenbah, Ph.D.

Kelly Millenbah,, Ph.D.

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CANR Dean; Director of Academic and Student Affairs
College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

Dr. Kelly F. Millenbah was named dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources on Oct. 28, 2022 after serving as interim dean since July 1, 2021.

The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) is made up of 12 academic departments and schools, the Institute of Agricultural Technology (IAT), MSU Extension and MSU AgBioResearch. In concert with the MSU College of Natural Sciences, CANR also co-manages the Kellogg Biological Station, a year-round teaching, research and outreach campus.

In all, there are about 280 tenure-track CANR faculty, 250 fixed-term faculty and academic specialists, and more than 800 MSU Extension, research academic and administrative staff. Through AgBioResearch, the college supports a portion of 75 additional faculty members in eight other colleges at MSU. MSU Extension has a presence in all 83 of Michigan’s counties, including 15 staffed research and Extension centers across the state.

Enrollment in the college hovers around 4,500, including undergraduate, graduate and IAT certificate programs. About half of the IAT students take courses at one of 12 community colleges around the state, with whom CANR partners to jointly offer certificate and associate degrees.

Annually, the CANR’s aggregate budget is about $290M. Research expenditures average $130M annually, with an additional $30M in contracts and grants administered by MSU Extension. CANR’s international outreach, teaching and research programs take programs take place on all seven continents, and leads or partners with other MSU colleges in more than 70% of all research and outreach at MSU.

As dean, Millenbah’s responsibilities encompass the teaching, research and mission areas of the college, including fiscal resources, personnel, infrastructure, development and stakeholder relations. She and the administrative team represent the college on campus, in academic organizations, and with external stakeholders including alumni, donors and more than 50 industry and commodity groups.

She continues to serve as senior associate dean for the CANR. Additionally, Millenbah is the director of academic and student affairs in the CANR at Michigan State University (MSU). In that role, she oversees the Office of Academic and Student Affairs (OASA) including the academic portfolio of the college (two-year certificate, undergraduate and graduate programs) and manages the college’s General Fund account. She is also a professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.

Millenbah is a scholar of natural resources education with a focus on teaching and learning within the classroom, curricular design and development, and recruitment and retention of students in the sciences. She earned her B.A. degree in Biology from Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Fisheries and Wildlife at MSU.

She is also ex officio in:

College Advisory Council
College Curriculum Committee
College Graduate Committee
College Teaching Awards Committee
Teaching and Academic Policy Committee
Undergraduate Research Program Committee

Millenbah previously served as the associate director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program, director of academic programs in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, and associate dean of Lyman Briggs College (a residential college for students interested in the sciences), all at MSU.

In May 2018, Millenbah was awarded the inaugural 2018 Simmons Chivukula Award for Academic Leadership at MSU. The Simmons Chivukula Award for Academic Leadership was designed to recognize consistently demonstrated excellence in MSU academic leadership.

She has also been recognized for her commitment to teaching and learning through several awards including a Lilly Teaching Fellowship, the MSU Alumni Club of Mid-Michigan Quality in Undergraduate Teaching Award, the Sigma Alpha Agriculture Advocate Award, and the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Distinguished Faculty Award.