Dr. Joseph P. Cassady is the South Dakota Corn Endowed Dean of the SDSU College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. He was SDSU Animal Science Department Head from 2013 until being appointed Dean in 2022, and concurrently Interim Dairy and Food Science Department Head from 2020 to 2022. He spent 12 years on the North Carolina State University faculty. Dr. Cassady has maintained a key focus on increasing research productivity and doubled graduate student enrollment in the Dept. of Animal Science. He provides oversight of operations and budgets for six livestock units, a meat teaching/research laboratory, a feed mill and nutrition, physiology and genetics research laboratories. He also provided strategic direction for the SDSU Rodeo Team, and livestock, meats, & wool judging teams. Dr. Cassady’s leadership and rapport with stakeholders helped raise over $14 million, to complete both a $7.4 million Swine Education and Research Facility and $6 million Cow-Calf Education and Research Facility.