Support the IHA

An investment to the Director’s Excellence Fund will provide crucial resources to assist with the ongoing operating and new programmatic efforts of the IHA that will help elevate IHA on a state, national and international platform. This includes: 

• Convening statewide and national workshops and symposia in partnership with influential organizations such as the Chicago Council of Global Affairs and the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, which advance a national research and policy agenda positioning agriculture as the solution to our society’s health challenges with Texas A&M AgriLife as the leader. 

• Informing elected officials at the state and national level of how agriculture can solve human, environmental and economic health challenges and the need for investment in these areas. 

• Positioning Texas A&M AgriLife agriculture and life sciences researchers as national leaders and spokespeople. 

• Seeding new initiatives that bridge the urban-rural divide by making agriculture relevant and valued by all Texans. 

Major endowment gifts to the Director’s Excellence Fund will have naming opportunities that strengthen the prestige of the IHA and serve as a legacy for the donor. Naming opportunities include:

• The Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture
• Precision Nutrition Focus Area
• Responsive Agriculture Focus Area
• Healthy Living Focus Area
• The Individualized Dietary Exposure Assessment, IDEA, Center
• Healthy Living Mobile Units

These fellowships are awarded to students who collaborate with researchers within IHA, providing each student with career-changing opportunities that can only come from working alongside the best scholars in their fields. Endowments for fellowships will increase the number of students who team with these outstanding scholars. Additionally, the donor will be associated with top doctoral graduates who will likely make significant contributions to mankind.

Students learn best by having high-impact, hands-on experiences. Summer- and semester-based internship experiences within the IHA will provide transformative learning opportunities and enable undergraduate students to work alongside world- renowned researchers, in the community and with producers. This will help excite and motivate the next generation of agriculture and food researchers. Endowments can be specified for first-generation and underrepresented students. Endowed support for these programs begins at $25,000.

Bringing the very best visiting scholars to the IHA will elevate the profile of Texas A&M AgriLife and agriculture as the solution to our world’s health challenges, create global ambassadors for the IHA, help nucleate new ideas and collaborations within the IHA, and serve as a recruitment tool to attract the very best scientists to the IHA.

Crop Improvement: Focused support is needed to develop novel technologies and differentiated food and feed from crops. These efforts would enhance nutritional value and increase yield potential as well as resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses for Texas’ producers and consumers.

Community-based dissemination: Diet-related chronic diseases are not evenly distributed throughout the population. Some communities have significantly higher rates of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. Focused attention is needed to encourage the adoption of precision nutrition recommendations in low-income populations and communities of color.