Major: Agricultural Business
Current employer/job title: University of Minnesota-Crookston, Chancellor
Mary Holz-Clause, Ph.D., has been named chancellor of University of Minnesota Crookston. Holz-Clause comes from California State Polytechnic (Cal Poly) University Pomona, where she has served since 2014 as dean of the Huntley College of Agriculture and as a tenured professor in the Department of Agricultural Business Management and Agriculture Science. In that role, she oversaw a student body of more than 2,000 — many of whom are underrepresented minorities and/or first generation college students—150 faculty and staff as well as five departments, four centers and nine farms and enterprises.
Prior to her work at Cal Poly Pomona, Holz-Clause served as vice president for economic development at the University of Connecticut (UConn), where she oversaw initial development of the UConn Technology Park in Storrs, Connecticut, and created an Office of Economic Development, garnering millions in outside contracts.
Accepting the chancellorship of the University of Minnesota Crookston marks a return to the Midwest for Holz-Clause, who has spent much of her life in Iowa — more specifically, at Iowa State University. After earning her B.S. in Agriculture Business, a Master in Public Administration, and a Ph.D. in Agriculture Education and Extension there, Holz-Clause spent 25 years working at her alma mater. During that time, she helped ISU Extension become a dynamic engagement and outreach partner across Iowa, the U.S. and the world.
Holz-Clause and her husband also own and operate a corn/soybean/cattle feedlot in central Iowa.
An internationally-known researcher and speaker, Holz-Clause has served as principal investigator on contracts and grants totaling more than $40 million in the last decade, with extensive background in agricultural development and policy. She also was appointed by California Governor Jerry Brown to serve on the California Department of Food and Agriculture Advisory Board, the primary advisory board for the $100 billion agriculture industry in California.
Photo: Peter Morenus/UCONN