UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Florence Becot recently was appointed Nationwide Insurance Early Career Professor of Agricultural Safety and Health in the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. She will oversee research, extension and academic programs in safety and health related to the agricultural and the biorenewable industries.
Becot’s research and outreach program is intended to understand and support farm families’ ability to meet their needs with an emphasis on their health, safety, well-being and economic viability. In particular, she focuses on two themes across state, national and international boundaries — the factors that shape farmers’ adoption of farm safety practices and the interactions between farm households’ social and economic needs, social policy and farm persistence.
Her current projects examine farm families’ access to health care, health insurance and child care; mental health supports for the agricultural sector; and the safety implications of automation in the dairy sector.
Becot will utilize her training and experiences in interdisciplinary research and outreach work to lead the Agricultural Safety and Health Program in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. That long-established program is aimed at identifying and mitigating safety hazards through engineering and educational approaches. Key Agricultural Safety and Health Program expertise areas include farm equipment and structures, animal handling, personal protective equipment, youth safety, injury and fatality surveillance, outreach, and education.
“I am honored and ecstatic to have been appointed the Nationwide Insurance Early Career Professor and I am thankful for Nationwide’s commitment to Penn State’s agricultural safety and health program," she said. "I will leverage the endowment to continue supporting our long-standing programs and resources; many of which were developed by the first holder of the Nationwide Endowment, Dr. Dennis Murphy. I am also excited to leverage the endowment along with findings from my research to develop new programs and resources.”
Becot brings a wealth of expertise, which will strengthen the College of Agricultural Sciences’ and Penn State Extension’s health and safety outreach, according to Suat Irmak, professor and head of agricultural and biological engineering.
“In addition to our strong and nationally visible traditional agricultural safety and health programs, her work will continue to contribute to the field of agricultural health and safety by examining how underappreciated factors such as child care, health care and health insurance shape farm families’ ability and willingness to adopt farm safety practices and seek medical care,” he said. “Additionally, and very importantly, her work will contribute to the field of rural social sciences by examining the role of social policies in shaping farm families’ ability to withstand shocks and adapt to ongoing changes.”
Becot received her doctoral degree in environment and natural resources, with a specialization in rural sociology, from The Ohio State University; a master’s degree in community development and applied economics from the University of Vermont; and a bachelor’s degree in economics and social sciences from the University of Rennes 1 in France. She joined Penn State with more than 12 years of experience from her time as an associate research scientist at the National Farm Medicine Center and as a research specialist at the University of Vermont Center for Rural Studies.
She has authored or co-authored 37 peer-reviewed journal articles and 45 outreach publications, such as research and policy briefs, reports and case study profiles. Becot has secured $1.4 million as the principal investigator on grants and played an active role in successful proposals totaling $7.5 million.
Outside of academia, she has presented her work to a variety of audiences, including farmers and farm organizations, farm service providers, a staffer of the U.S. Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, the special assistant to President Joe Biden’s White House Rural Policy adviser and more recently to the governor of Wisconsin.
Nationwide Insurance established the professorship in 2014 with a $1 million gift, the first endowed professorship of its kind in the college. Endowment funds provide the professorship holder with resources to expand research, teaching or outreach efforts, and best safety practices.