LAND GRANT PROGRAM
400 East Main Street, Frankfort, KY 40601 kysu.edu/ag | @kysuag
January 29, 2021
Dear Dr. Yates:
I have carefully reviewed the dossier, as well as The School of Agriculture, Communities, and the Environment (ACE) Unit Tenure and Promotion Committee and Chair of the School of ACE recommendations. My evaluation is also based on the guidelines in the Faculty Handbook section 2 and Appendix K. I have also referenced the performance guidelines used by the School for evaluation of research, Extension, and teaching. I concur with the findings of the Committee and the Chair and strongly recommend Dr. Olden for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor.
Dr. Olden has a Ph.D. in Molecular Plant Breeding from Justus Liebig University (Germany) which is an appropriate terminal degree for the School of ACE in which she teaches, conducts research, and provides outreach to the public. Dr. Olden has been employed by KSU in the Land Grant Program since 2013 and started a tenure track appointment in 2018. This review focuses on her accomplishments over the last 5 years at KSU and follows section 2.7.3.1.1 item VI.-D. and the guidelines in Appendix K for Land Grant Personnel in the KSU Faculty Handbook which describes the nature of positions having research and or Extension and Teaching responsibilities. Dr. Olden's assigned responsibilities from 2013 until 2018 were 100% research, and since 2018, have been approximately 87.5% research and 12.5% teaching.
In terms of teaching, Dr. Olden has developed course materials and taught several courses, as well as mentored students in special topics courses. She has taught ENV 545 Molecular Techniques for Environmental and Aquatic Studies which was assigned to her, BIO 103 Environmental Biology, and although she is not an instructor of record, she mentored students in BIO 485 Special Topics in AFE and ENV 585 Special Topics in Environmental Studies. Student evaluations have been positive for Dr. Olden's courses.
In terms of scholarly and creative activity, Dr. Olden has approximately 7 years of research service activity at KSU. Since 2013, Dr. Olden has requested and wrote several Evans Allen Research Proposals that were approved by the Land Grant Program and USDA, and she has published four refereed journal articles. As a first author, she published an article entitled “Transcriptional response of honey bee (Apis mellifera) to differential nutritional status and Nosema infection” (2018) and an additional article entitled “Transcriptome analysis of drought-tolerant sorghum genotype SC56 in response to water stress reveals an oxidative stress defense strategy” (2020). These articles were published in internationally respected Journals. She is also a co-author on several journal articles. Additionally, Dr. Olden had a competitive grant funded from NSF-EPSCoR for $25,000. She has also been a co-author on a USDA Capacity Building grant