Meet the Dean: Agriculture and Natural Resource’s Matt Daum
Download MP3Matthew Daum named dean of MSU’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and associate provost
Following a competitive national search, Matthew Daum has been approved by the Michigan State University Board of Trustees to serve as dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, or CANR, and associate provost.
Daum has provided interim leadership to CANR since July 1, 2024, when he succeeded outgoing dean, Kelly Millenbah.
Daum joins MSU Today to talk about his industry background before returning to his alma mater to lead the School of Packaging. He describes the college’s diverse curriculum, research, and outreach activities. He talks about why he wants to be dean and details some of his goals for the college.
Conversation Highlights:
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Conversation Transcript:
Speaker 1:
Conversation Transcript:
Speaker 1:
Well, it's a pleasure to welcome Matt Daum back to MSU Today. Matt is the brand new dean of MSU'S renowned College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, although he has been the interim dean since last July 1st, 2024, and Matt and I talked a few times in his previous role as chair of our renowned School of Packaging. So Matt, great to have you back.
Speaker 2:
Thanks Russ. I am thrilled to be back and appreciate you coming over here for this conversation.
Speaker 1:
And why don't you start a little bit, you're not new to MSU, you've been around a while, but tell listeners a little bit of your background maybe before you came to MSU and why you decided to come here.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I've been here since 2020, so I moved my family here during the pandemic. Before that I actually was in industry, so I was in Idaho. I worked for a company called Hewlett Packard based in Boise, Idaho. We were there for over 25 years, almost 26 years, and was in executive management roles there. And almost kind of out of the blue got a call from a friend who said, Hey Matt, the School of Packaging has their director job open. Would you be interested? And I said, no, why would I be interested at that? I liked where I lived, I liked the company I worked for. I liked the work that I was doing. And so I kind of just blew it off, frankly. Well, he called again and he said, Matt, you want to keep making widgets or do you want to come back and impact the next generation? That got my attention.
It actually came at a good time because if you know the print industry, which I was in, it was struggling. And I was also at a point in my career where I felt like wanted to spend a little more time with family and was willing to take a new risk. And I was from Michigan and got my degrees from the College and School of Packaging in particular. So I went and explored and the dean at the time, we had a great conversation about what he was looking for and I thought, you know what? I can do this. Let me give it a shot. And so that's how I ended up at MSU. I will say that my degree, my packaging degree from MSU opened up all kinds of doors for me, and that's true of a lot of degrees here at Michigan State. It gives you a great foundation to do a lot of different things, but that degree in particular got me into a globally recognized fantastic company that made huge investment in its employees, made investment in me. I started as an engineer, but then I ended up in management and leadership roles. And so that's how I was trained was to lead and manage all kinds of different functions and businesses really. And so I'm very, very grateful for the land grant mission and the degree that I got and the success that led for me.
Speaker 1:
And Matt, let's talk a little bit about this wonderful College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at MSU. We don't have enough time for you to talk about all the cool things going on, but touch on a little bit of the diverse curriculum, the outreach, the research, so much goes on here.
Speaker 2:
It's a huge college and I did not appreciate that until I actually stepped into the interim dean role and then realize, wow, there's a lot here. So from an academic point of view, there are 12 academic units proper. We've got everything from packaging to construction management, landscape architecture, ag engineering, fisheries and wildlife, ag economics, and many more. And so if you have any interest in agriculture or natural resources built environments, we have it. And that sets us apart. And in fact, our college, I think is unique. It is unique in Michigan. We are able to offer those kinds of degrees that other universities don't have. So that's the academic side. We also have MSU Extension and most people know that MSU Extension operates in all counties in Michigan. I like to think of it as we take the research from the university and we bring it out to the people in the communities and apply it to make communities better, healthy, et cetera. Four H, most people know 4-H and many other programs like that shout out to Quentin Tyler, he's our senior director for extension and does a fantastic job. The other piece is what we call AgBioResearch. And so George Smith, fantastic leader of that organization. That's the research portfolio on behalf of the whole university related to ag and natural resource that cuts across seven different colleges. It's quite a large research portfolio. So all of those things together comprise the College of Ag and Natural Resources.
Speaker 1:
And so Matt, why did you want to be the dean and lead this college?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I get asked that question every so often, especially now when we're in a little more tough environment. Why would you want to go and do that? There's a couple reasons. So one is personally, I feel like my whole career has, I think led up to this point in terms of leadership. I love bringing an organization into a new frontier. That's really what if you boil it down, that's really my passion. And where I feel I have strength is to lead organizations into new territory. This was a fantastic opportunity to do that. The second piece is I am a serial learner. I love learning new things. I never become like an expert really in anything, but I love learning. And so this is a massive playground in order to just learn something new every single day. I go home every night and my wife will be like, what'd you do today? And I'll say, I learned this or I did that. And she's like, you like this, don't you? And I do. So what better way to combine a level of learning with leading an organization forward?
Speaker 1:
And Matt, say a little bit more about your management and leadership style.
Speaker 2:
There's a couple of things I can say. If you go Google HP way, it is a particular management style that was pioneered by Hewlett Packard and really it came down to two things. Number one was very high result expectations. And so in that context it was about meeting business goals, exceeding business goals. That's common for any business. But what was unique in the HP way is that along the way you treat people well and you treat your colleagues well, and you do things together. And when we would get rated or when we were rating or doing annual evaluations, we evaluated not only on the what, but also how they were both equally weighted. So that's the management training and structure that I grew up in. I would say that that also aligns with my personal values. My personal values of really feeling like respect your fellow human beings, treat people well. I was taught that at home. I firmly believe that. And so that comes through in my style. Sometimes I think people will be like, oh, you're such a nice guy. Well, I try to be, but underneath that is a very competitive spirit that wants to win, expects to win, and expects to have distinction and excellence in any organization that I lead. So I try to combine the niceness with a really high bar of what we're trying to get done.
Speaker 1:
So well said, Matt. And in addition to being dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, you will be an associate provost here at MSU. Talk about what you'll do in that role, how the roles may work well together.
Speaker 2:
So the associate provost role that reflects the extension and ag bio research pieces and the three organizations, the college proper with the academic units, the ag bio research, the extension, have to work together very, very closely. George and Quentin, the leaders of those organizations, fantastic leaders, like I said, we work in concert together, but the associate provost title is really meant to say the buck stops at my desk for the accountability for those organizations on behalf of the university. Now I delegate and I expect my leaders to in their own right be front and center for their expertise, but at the end of the day, the provost and university are going to look to me for the viability of those organizations.
Speaker 1:
Got it. Matt, you've been dean for a while as we said, but what are some of your short-term goals as you really get going now as the official dean.
Speaker 2:
I had big plans before last semester about strategy and rolling that out, and then we got sidelined with cuts and grant impact and so forth, which by the way, I want to say I'm very proud of the team here. We have put together what I think is a fantastic process of evaluating when we have grant impact and then what does that mean and how do we work through it and how do we treat people well? Through that, we've done well looking at strategically how do we meet the cuts from the university. So I feel good about the process and how we've done that. Anyways, that's kind of sidelined us a little bit, but as I look ahead as number one thing for me is the culture of the organization. We have got good people. I want to capitalize on this whole concept that we treat each other well.
You create environments where people feel like my whole person can show up and I can contribute. That's the number one thing that's important to me. It's not something you just write down. It's something you have to do and you have to model. So there's that. The second thing I would say, big emphasis for me on the units. I want the units to be distinctive and excellent. Now that's tough in a budget situation. However, I am asking each of those unit leaders to have a plan, be intentional. What is it that's going to make your unit distinctive and move into a much better place than where you're at right now? We have some of the top rated majors in the nation. Most people don't know that, but you're going to hear more about that. I'm thinking about a bigger marketing plan about who we are and what we do.
You can expect that there's going to be a lot more external input into what I'm hearing and what I'm asking the unit leaders to hear. We need to stay relevant. And so that comes back into what's in our curriculum. Are the students workforce ready when they're coming out? That aligns with the green and white council. We've got a lot that we're doing in the philanthropic area. We've got some fantastic ideas around new facilities, and it's not just the facilities, but it's then the research and the impact for students that happen inside those facilities. So big emphasis on that as well. So those are just a few things that are in my mind here over the next semester or two.
Speaker 1:
And what about longer term, Matt, as you proceed?
Speaker 2:
I want to fulfill what our president's vision is of that. We are a contemporary global land-grant university and what does that mean? And I want to help define what that means. And part of that to me is MSU has a reputation of being a thought leader. And I think our college can do that both in the context of the traditional majors that we have in our college. We're excellent in those and in the contribution that we make to Michigan State to elevate MSU is something different and offers more of this interdisciplinary research and opportunities and collaboration compared to other universities. I want us to do our part to really elevate MSU as a whole. So you've got things like the One Health Initiative that we're very much involved with and some of these other areas that take the distinctiveness of an Ag College and help use that to drive the elevation of Michigan State.
Speaker 1:
Matt, again, we could have a conference on this and you've been touching on some funding challenges, but as you think about things for the college, all of MSU and maybe all of higher ed, both some challenges and opportunities ahead.
Speaker 2:
I think there's some macro challenges. There is a narrative that is out there saying, is it really worth spending all that money going to college? I got 3 in college all out of state. I know exactly what that calculus is and that thinking. And so I think we as in the academy, we cannot ignore that. We have to actually embrace that, and I think we've got to continue to show that we're adding value and that it is worth coming to the university. Now, there's the traditional on campus, four year, whatever, but I think we've also have to think of ourselves as we deliver the education that people need. That could be two year degrees like our Institute of Ag technology that could be skilling up those who are already in the workforce and so that certificates or short courses or whatever. So to me, we got to broaden our thinking about we deliver knowledge that changes people's lives. That can come in many different forms, and I think we need to help embrace that. So that I think will help.
I'm going to keep asking our leaders and faculty to get the external perspective, pull that into your curriculum. Things are moving so fast coming from the tech industry, today it’s ai, five years from now, it's going to be something else. But you got to be able to teach the timeless skills of problem solving and thinking through and being logical and knowing how to use data, knowing how to use tools to solve problems. Those are the things that we really got to focus on. And if we do that, then I think the value of coming to college is going to be there. There's new opportunities because things change. There's new technologies, and I think you've got to a generation who's coming of age right now that is hyper-focused on making a difference. They want their degree, their career, their efforts to make a difference in the world. And so let's talk that way and let's gear our curriculum that way and let's encourage students that way. The Land grant mission fits that perfectly, so let's lean into that. And most people don't know what a land grant is and how that's distinctive. So that to me is the opportunity is you keep demonstrating and you keep talking about why we're different and why it matters and why people can come here, get a degree, and then go make a big impact.
Speaker 1:
Matt, really great talking with you and catching up again, and I can really sense your passion for leading this great college. Just any final thoughts as we wrap up? Just what do you want us to keep in mind about this college as you move it forward?
Speaker 2:
Probably what's top of mind for me is expect to hear a lot about us. I am planning on being aggressive in terms of how we talk about ourselves, how we partner and highlight all the great work and the great faculty and the staff and the leadership here. So expect to hear a lot about our college and I invite those who have interests in partnering and wanting to be part of this community. That's what we're here for and would love to meet with you and partner with you.
Speaker 1:
Matt. Great catching up. Go green. Congratulations on being the dean officially.
Speaker 2:
Thank you. Appreciate it. Go white.
Speaker 1:
That's Matt Daum, the dean of Michigan State University's world-renowned College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. He's also associate provost here at MSU. Much more at CANR dot MSU dot edu. And I'm Russ White. This is MSU Today.
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Russ White
I host and produce MSU Today for News/Talk 760 @wjrradio and @MichiganStateU's @NPR affiliate @WKAR News/Talk 102.3 FM and AM 870.
