Growing up removed from most agriculture in Phoenix, Arizona, Donald’s interest in it was first caught when a recruiter mentioned a high school agriculture class that “taught you how to raise fish”. The prerequisites had him growing food and landscaping plants in a greenhouse. Interest in plants overtook fish, and that has never subsided.
Through participation in his local FFA chapter, and eventually becoming a State Officer, he was constantly developing public speaking and engagement skills while learning about agriculture outside of urban sunbaked home. His advisors saw potential in him as an educator and nudged him toward agricultural education.
Agricultural Education
His passion for agriculture and newfound skill of teaching merged at the University of Arizona in his pursuit of a Bachelors Degree in Agricultural Technology Management and Education. This required a diverse range of subjects including entomology, animal science, plant science, mechanics, and curriculum development. The degree culminated with a student teaching experience that had him teaching the curriculum he wrote for five high school agriculture classes.
Greenhouse Internship
Eager to teach but aware of his limited knowledge on greenhouses and hydroponics Donald took the opportunity to work at Walt Disney World’s Living with the Land attraction at Epcot. There he worked as the systems intern building creative hydroponic displays, performing maintenance on equipment and providing tours to the guests.
CEA Specialization
Now confident in being able to teach students how to work in greenhouses, Donald was faced with the fact that greenhouses and indoor agriculture are complicated systems. In order to better understand and one day teach how these systems are designed and operated, he returned to the University of Arizona to enroll in a Master’s program. While there, he studied and researched hydroponic and mushroom production at the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center and spent a summer working research and development at Plenty Unlimited, Inc.
Lead Horticulturist
Thinking back to the best teachers he had, Donald noticed one commonality between them all: industry experience. Taking this observation to heart, he set out to work at Traders Hill Farm, an aquaponic greenhouse in Hilliard, Florida. There, he applied all his cumulated knowledge and skills for the consistent production of high quality romaine lettuce while testing new varieties and researching cost effective improvement methods.
Agricultural Engineering
Finally realizing that his dream of teaching high school agriculture classes was too restrictive for his goals, Donald set out to get a PhD of Agriculture Engineering at the University of Florida. His new goal was to teach at much deeper and comprehensive levels within university courses. His research on crop models stems directly from not being able to accurately predict yield and harvest date, especially in the event of environmental stressors.
Donald S. Coon 