Bonanno is key collaborator with new role across South

“It’s really kind of an exciting position to move into. … Everything I’ve ever done has had agriculture attached to it.”
Rich Bonanno, whose family owns Pleasant Valley Gardens on Merrimack Street

For more than eight years, Rich Bonanno has overseen the Extension program at North Carolina State University, credited with increasing its annual budget by 37 percent and developing an ambitious future strategic plan – all the while maintaining, according to the school, a large smile and a generous laugh.

Soon, Bonanno, who also served as an associate dean in the university’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), will take on a new assignment. He’s going to become the executive director of the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors on Sept. 1.
ASRED is a coalition of Directors of Extension in 13 southern states, ranging from Virginia to Texas, along with the territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. According to ASRED’s website, the mission of the organization, in part, is to promote collaboration among its member states and territories in ways that strengthen individual programs through the sharing of resources and expertise.

Bonanno, 66, will replace Dr. Ron Brown, who held the role for approximately 20 years, and previously worked for Mississippi State University’s Extension program.

“It’s really kind of an exciting position to move into,” Bonanno said. “I’m looking forward to the transition, but this job has been so great it’s really hard to leave it. It’s really been a rewarding experience doing this job the last eight-and-a-half years.”

Bonanno grew up farming at Pleasant Valley Gardens, which his family has run since 1910. He graduated from Central Catholic in 1975, earned a Bachelor of Science in agronomy and a Master of Science in vegetable crops/weed science from Cornell University. He achieved his doctorate in horticulture and physiology from Oregon State University.

He was a North Carolina State University faculty member from 1983 to 1989, serving as an extension weed specialist and CALS researcher for vegetable crops, according to the school.

Bonanno returned to Massachusetts, following the death of his uncle, Clement, and ran the family farm for 27 years. He worked with his father, Angelo, was active in local farming organizations, and served as an adjunct professor and Extension educator at the University of Massachusetts.

He returned to NC State as associate dean and Extension director in 2016. On Jan. 1, 2023, he also took on the role of Vice Provost for Outreach and Engagement at the school.

“Everything I’ve ever done has had agriculture attached to it,” Bonanno said.

His new job, Bonanno said, will be less time-consuming than the work schedule he has now and will give him a better work-life balance.

ASRED has no established office so he and his wife, LuAnne, who reside in Raleigh, have some flexibility on where they will live.

He has already been working with Brown on their transition.

“I feel like I’m ready but I also realize that there will be things I don’t know when I get into the job that I’ll have to learn just like I did in the job I’m in,” he said.

The Bonannos have six grandchildren and three daughters: Cara, who is a special education teacher in Tewksbury, Alison who works for the Space Development Agency in Colorado, and Heather who runs the farm.

During the growing season, Bonanno returns to Massachusetts every third weekend to see his grandchildren and help out on the farm — Heather always has a “Daddy to-do list” for him.

“There’s always something she’s got me doing,” he said with amusement.

According to NC State, its Extension offers more than 26,000 educational programs “connecting North Carolinians with the university’s cutting edge research to create practical solutions and applications across all 100 counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.”

The Extension’s annual impact was estimated at $2.1 billion in 2023, according to the school.

In a publicly posted message, Dr. Garey Fox, dean of CALS at NC State, called Bonanno’s upcoming Aug. 30 departure bittersweet.

“We are sad to lose Rich’s steadfast leadership across our Extension community and in the college, but we are thrilled that he will continue to drive the land-grant mission forward across the Southern Region in his new position with ASRED,” Fox wrote. “Extension is at the heart of our land-grant mission at NC State University, and we look forward to the next chapter of the NC State Extension that builds upon a strong foundation established by Rich Bonanno.”

Bonanno said that college administrators tend to last 5 to 10 years in their positions, far less than faculty members. He had his eye on the ASRED job for a while but did not know how long Brown planned to stay.

“To me, it was a good opportunity for me,” he said of the ASRED leadership post. “It was getting close to the right time to make a transition to a different job.”