Rich Crow, assistant professor of agronomy, received a national award recently from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture.

Rich Crow, assistant professor of agronomy at Morningside College, received a national award recently from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA).

The NACTA Educator Award recognizes individuals whose efforts represent the very best in agricultural higher education. Crow received the award at the organization’s annual conference.

Crow has taught at Morningside College since 2014. Prior to coming to Morningside, Crow served for seven years as a GPS/GIS consultant for Northeast Iowa farmers and taught for four years at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

In 2016, he was one of 24 individuals across the state selected to participate in Class 8 of the Iowa Corn Leadership Enhancement and Development program designed to provide Iowa’s talented men and women with the tools they need to succeed as leaders and spokespeople for the agriculture industry. As part of that program, he recently participated in a two-week trade mission trip to Southeast Asia.

Crow grew up on a diversified crop and livestock farm in Northeast Iowa, providing him with a background in dairy, beef, swine, corn and soybean production. In 2001, he received his American Farmer Degree from the FFA organization. Through his career, Crow has had a strong interest in ag technologies as they apply to crop production in Iowa. Most recently, he has been working with drone education to assist area high school and college students in obtaining their commercial drone pilot license.

He has a master’s degree in agronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.