After years of hard work, innovation and commitment, David Anderson ‘94, Ph.D., won the Southern Agricultural Economics Association, or SAEA, Lifetime Achievement award on Feb. 3 at the annual conference in Irving, Texas. The regional accolade has historically been awarded to collegiate educators who have demonstrated consistent influence and determination throughout their careers, and Anderson is no exception.
Anderson has been a professor of an agriculture and food policy graduate course at Texas A&M since 1996. Before this, he received his doctorate in agriculture economics from Aggieland to demonstrate his expertise as a livestock economist.
“I like the teaching,” Anderson said. “It’s fun. I think the students are a lot of fun, particularly in, you know, in a graduate course, people are a little more sometimes engaged. … I find it to be pretty rewarding.”
He said receiving the award was an extreme honor. However, he’s not yet finished with his career and is eager to share his motivation and passion for the betterment of education with future generations.
While prolonged years of experience tends to come with a lack of excitement, Anderson said he defies these odds by allowing the knowledge and interests of his students to shape his ever-evolving curriculum. Rather than reusing old material, he seeks out hot topics.
“There’s times that a student will ask a question, and it actually changes what we’re going to do in class that semester,” Anderson said. “Because I think the question is so good that we want to devote some time to it. So, I’ll take a day later in the semester. I’ll say, ‘Hey, give me a week or so to put together some reading materials for the class and to kind of develop a lecture on it.’ And then we use that in class.”
This method of engagement continues to impact Anderson’s students, especially those in the field of education, such as Charles Martinez ‘19. During his doctoral studies, Anderson mentored Martinez and taught him life lessons he continues to utilize even today.
“What Dr. Anderson does best is combine the real world and what happens in markets to the theoretical book world, for lack of a better term,” Martinez said. “And he does a good job of explaining and making complicated things seem very simple. … He can make a very complicated subject seem very, very simple, and you often leave him going, ‘Well, it’s not as hard as it seems.’”
Although Martinez has surpassed his years of schooling, Anderson makes it clear to his students that he will always be there to help. Martinez said Anderson is never more than a phone call away, whether it be for scholarly advice or a simple conversation, something that he tries to implement into his own career.
“Just because you graduate from Texas A&M doesn’t mean that he quits giving you advice and mentorship if you ask for it,” Martinez said. “And that’s one of the best things that, or the best qualities that he has. … It’s something that not a lot of people put time and effort into. And that’s being just a really good person and mentor.”
He recalled a time in which his wife was nine months pregnant during his Ph.D. qualifier test.
“If [the phone] rang three times for my wife, that was her going into labor, and I had to leave during the test,” Martinez said. “And afterwards, [Anderson] was like, ‘I guess she didn’t go into labor. Go ahead and get to the hospital now.’”
The professor’s qualities rubbed off, as Martinez received the Emerging Scholar Award at the same association ceremony. Because of Anderson’s extensive presence and generosity, he has maintained a personal relationship with not only Martinez but his entire family, making the award ceremony a poetic moment for all in attendance. Martinez described it as a family reunion of academic sorts.
“This is kind of a regional association of us ag economists, their Lifetime Achievement Award,” Anderson said. “And I was pretty proud to get that. But I thought, well, you know, sometimes lifetime achievement, that might imply that things are over, and I don’t think things are over. I like coming to work. I like what I do. I’m pretty lucky. And so my hope is to get to keep doing it.”
