THE NALP EXPERIENCE Cathie Lavis, Meet Outstanding Educator of the Year By Jill Odom
CATHIE LAVIS, PH.D., PROFESSOR AND EXTENSION SPECIALIST OF landscape management for Kansas State University has been named the Outstanding Educator of the Year for 2021. Lavis has been teaching at Kansas State since 1990, starting as a graduate student. She has been described as passionate, driven and persistent. Lavis is always incorporating new teaching strategies into her courses that focus on student development of critical thinking skills.
She earned her
bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Oklaho- ma State and a master’s degree in ornamental horticulture from Kan- sas State. A colleague strongly urged her to earn a Ph.D. so while teaching full time, she earned her Ph.D. in agronomy from Kansas State in 2005. In many of the nomination letters, her former students, colleagues and industry leaders praised Lavis for
her dedication to her students and her desire to see each individual succeed. This award was presented to Lavis vir- tually during the 45th National Collegiate Landscape Competition. Lavis is retiring after this spring semester and NALP caught up with her to learn more about her career.
Lavis loves watching her students grow and eventually enter the
industry. Photo: Greg Davis
WHEN DID YOU FIRST BECOME INTER- ESTED IN HORTICULTURE? I actually fell into horticulture, my BS is in agronomy. I was in Bryan-College Station in the late 80s, seeking employ- ment, driving down Texas Blvd and saw a garden store and said to myself, “I could work at a garden store,” sent out resumes and a cover letter to all in the ‘yellow pages’ and one was looking for a manager, the rest is history.
HOW DID YOU END UP AN EDUCATOR YOURSELF?
No intention of doing so, fell into it 18 The Landscape Professional //May/June 2021
while doing graduate teaching, was offered an instructor position upon completion of my MS, started teaching plant materials, horticulture science and plant propagation. Soon landscape maintenance, landscape contracts and construction and arboriculture courses needed a teacher, I was asked by the department head, Dr. Tom Warner, to
teach these courses, I jumped at the opportunity.
HOW DID YOU SETTLE ON IRRIGATION AND ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE AS YOUR SPECIALTIES?
Again, it kind of found me, I knew our program needed an irrigation course and about that time, Kevin Marks, now with SiteOne Landscape was asked by the Irri- gation Association if he knew someone at the university that might be interested in partnering with them to develop course modules at the college level. Kevin found me through a local landscape compa- ny who recommended he call me. Kevin and I have been friends now
since 1998. I rolled out the horticultural irrigation course in 1999. When I moved back to Manhattan, Kansas, in 1990, before returning to school to earn my MS, I started taking care of residential properties, full-scale maintenance, mow- ing, pruning and planting. My passion is landscape and tree care, so teaching these related courses is natural. I used
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