{"id":231588,"date":"2025-06-30T07:10:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T11:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=231588"},"modified":"2025-06-30T07:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T11:25:07","slug":"kumar-venkitanarayanan-named-interim-dean-of-uconns-college-of-agriculture-health-and-natural-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/06\/kumar-venkitanarayanan-named-interim-dean-of-uconns-college-of-agriculture-health-and-natural-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Kumar Venkitanarayanan Named Interim Dean of UConn\u2019s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kumar Venkitanarayanan, professor of animal science, has been named interim dean for the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR).<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Venkitanarayanan is deeply committed to the success of CAHNR, its people, and the communities it serves,\u201d said UConn Provost Anne D\u2019Alleva in a message to the College announcing Venkitanarayanan\u2019s appointment. \u201cI am grateful to him for stepping into this role and for the continuity and leadership he will provide during this period of transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venkitanarayanan is a leader in the field of egg and poultry meat safety. Venkitanarayanan\u2019s research focuses on developing novel, organic antimicrobials to combat foodborne pathogens in an age of antibiotic resistance. Venkitanarayanan is currently leading a $10 million USDA-NIFA grant<\/a> focused on sustainable poultry production with objectives to improve bird, human, and environmental health.<\/p>\n

Venkitanarayanan previously served as CAHNR senior associate dean for research and graduate studies. Venkitanarayanan played a key role in establishing formal connections with Indian universities creating opportunities for student and faculty in both countries. In 2021, Venkitanarayanan was named a fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).<\/p>\n

Venkitanarayanan will serve in this position while the College completes a national search to fill the position permanently. This transition follows former Dean Indrajeet Chaubey\u2019s<\/a> departure from the University. Chaubey served as dean for six years and is now Provost at the University of Arkansas. Ock Chun, professor in the Department of Nutritional Science, will serve as interim associate dean for research and graduate studies during Venkitanarayanan’s term as interim dean. Her term begins August 24, 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am honored to support the teaching, research, and extension mission at CAHNR,\u201d says Venkitanarayanan. \u201cI am excited to continue to seek creative strategies to elevate CAHNR\u2019s unique strengths and amplify our impactful programs that reach all of Connecticut\u2019s cities and towns, as well as communities around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0<\/em>UConn CAHNR<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on social media<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venkitanarayanan is a leader in the field of egg and poultry meat safety and has served in several leadership roles within the University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":128149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2297,2296,2298,2354,2224,2304,2299,2300,2301,2302,2303],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-231588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agricultural-resource-economics","category-allied-health-sciences","category-animal-science","category-cannabis","category-cahnr","category-extension","category-kinesiology","category-natural-resources-environment","category-nutritional-sciences","category-pathobiology-veterinary-science","category-plant-science-landscape-architecture"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 14:52:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231588"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232337,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231588\/revisions\/232337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/128149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231588"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=231588"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=231588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}