Richard Michael Foster

Virgil S. Lagomarcino Laureate

By the College of Education

For meritorious service and/or distinguished achievement in such areas as business and industry, education, and health.

Richard Michael Foster
B.S. Agricultural Education, 1972
M.S. Agricultural Education, 1974
Ph.D. Agricultural Education, 1978

As Vice President for Programs for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Rick Foster employs his Iowa State education and experience as an award-winning professor to provide leadership for our nation’s food systems and rural development. He is credited with establishing the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities, a team of 25 prominent university presidents who are addressing the transition of public higher education into the next century. Dr. Foster also leads the Food Systems Professions Education initiative, designed to assist our nation’s land-grant universities in meeting tomorrow’s food system challenges. And, he originated the Leadership for Institutional Change initiative, which links twelve universities together in leadership development activities to better meet the needs of people and communities.

College of Education alumni, students, and faculty are proud to be a part of these fine WKKF initiatives and are most appreciative of Dr. Foster’s lifelong commitment to improving education and the status of learning and teaching.